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TENEMENT   CONDITIONS 
IN  CHICAGO 

REPORT 

BY  THE  INVESTIGATING  COMMITTEE 

OF   THE 

CITY   HOMES  ASSOCIATION 


TEXT  BY 

ROBERT    HUNTER 


CHICAGO 

PUBLISHED  BY  CITY  HOMES  ASSOCIATION 
igoi 


JTijr 

R.  R.  DONNELLEY  &  SONS  COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


C.  o  p< 


PREFACE 

7^  ///<?  Executive  Committee  of  the  City  Homes  Association  : 

This  report  is  submitted  by  your  Investigating  Committee  as 
a  result  of  their  work  undertaken  in  the  beginning  of  the  sum- 
mer of  1900.  After  consulting  with  various  charitable  and  reform 
societies,  and  receiving  from  them  many  suggestions  as  to  the  best 
methods  of  obtaining  accurate  information  concerning  the  evils 
of  tenement-house  conditions,  it  was  decided  that  an  investiga- 
tion should  be  made  of  representative  portions  of  the  city.  The 
advice  of  the  Settlements,  the  Bureau  of  Charities,  and  the  Visit- 
ing Nurses'  Association  as  to  which  districts  showed  the  worst 
sanitary  and  housing  evils  was  requested,  and  the  districts  as 
shown  in  the  following  maps  were  selected.  Dr.  Frank  A.  Fetter, 
Professor  of  Economics  at  the  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University, 
directed  the  work  of  the  enumerators.  Through  the  courtesy  of 
Mr.  William  R.  Stirling  and  Hunger,  Ebbert  &  Co.,  copies  of  the 
insurance  maps  covering  District  One  were  obtained.  Mr.  Dun- 
lap  Smith  permitted  the  Committee  the  use  of  real-estate  maps  of 
the  districts.  The  Department  of  Health  supplied  all  of  the 
enumerators  with  stars  worn  by  their  sanitary  inspectors,  which 
gave  them  the  right  to  enter  every  tenement.  Dr.  Fetter  was 
assisted  by  Dr.  Edwin  Ryerson  and  the  following  enumer- 
ators, mentioned  in  the  order  of  their  length  of  service: 
E.  D.  Solenberger,  Roswell  H.  Johnson,  S.  G.  Lindholm,  Miss 
Jennie  Dupuis,  Mrs.  M.  S.  Johnson,  Miss  Alice  Winston,  Mrs. 
L.  W.  Taft,  Miss  Pease,  Miss  Katherine  B.  Davis,  and  H.  Wirt 
Steele.  Of  those  who  gave  clerical  help,  Mr.  C.  W.  Price 
deserves  special  mention.  Acknowledgment  is  due  Miss  Kath- 
erine B.  Davis,  Ph.D.,  for  especially  valuable  co-operation  in  the 
investigation  of  the  Bohemian  district.  The  plumbing  investi- 
gation was  done,  with  the  advice  and  assistance  of  President 
Clinch  of  the  Plumbers'  Union,  by  the  following  licensed  plumb- 
ers: F.  B.  Mower,  Joseph  Mooney,  P.  J.  Mitchell,  J.  J.  Malone, 
and  H.  Jacobson. 

3 


201016 


4  PREFACE 

The  actual  work  of  the  inquiry  was  commenced  about  the  is 
of  August,  1900,  and  was  carried  on  with  as  much  speed  as  wa: 
compatible  with  thoroughness.  The  work  of  compilation  and  tin 
making  of  maps,  charts,  and  diagrams  was  completed  about  th< 
last  of  October.  On  the  completion  of  the  work,  Dr.  Fetter  fur 
nished  the  Committee  with  a  statement  of  the  actual  condition 
found,  and  with  maps,  diagrams,  and  statistical  tables. 

All  of  the  materials  collected  in  this  investigation,  with  th< 
returns  of  the  enumerators,  are  filed  at  the  office  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  City  Homes  Association,  215  Dearborn  Street,  and  ma; 
be  consulted  by  any  one  who  is  interested  to  go  more  deeply  int< 
the  subject. 

The  report  as  now  submitted  not  only  shows  the  result  of  th< 
inquiry,  but  also  compares  conditions  in  Chicago  with  those  else 
where.     These  original    materials  have  all  been  most  carefull] 
worked  over,  and  the  tables  and  diagrams  verified. 
Respectfully  submitted. 

ANITA  MCCORMICK  ELAINE, 
JANE  ADDAMS, 
CAROLINE  MCCORMICK, 
L.   V.   LE  MOYNE, 
ERNEST  P.   BICKNELL, 
ROBERT   HUNTER,  Chairman, 

Committee  on  Investigation 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY:   PURPOSES  AND   IMPORTANCE   OF 
THE   INQUIRY 

PAGE 

SECTION  i.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  THREATS  OF 
THE  NEW  HOUSING  EVILS  -  -  11 

SECTION  2.  A  SMALL  AREA  is  CHOSEN  FOR  INQUIRY  FROM  A 
WILDERNESS  OF  HOUSING  AND  SANITARY  NEGLECT  12 

SECTION  3.  THE  PURPOSE  OF  THE  INQUIRY  is  TO  LAY  A  FOUN- 
DATION FOR  REFORM  -  14 

SECTION  4.  OFFICIAL  NEGLECT  AND  CORRUPT  POLITICS  ARE  NOT 
ALONE  TO  BLAME  FOR  BAD  CONDITIONS  -  16 

SECTION  5.  THE  STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  THE  INTERESTS  OF  THE 
INDIVIDUAL  AND  THE  LARGER  INTERESTS  OF  THE  COMMUNITY  18 


CHAPTER  II. 
OVERCROWDED  AREAS 

SECTION  i.  ECONOMY   OF  LAND    AND   THE  TENEMENT   PROBLEM  21 

SECTION  2.  OVERCROWDING  THE  BLOCK,  AND  ITS  MEANING  -  24 

SECTION  3.  OVERCROWDING  ON  LOT  AREAS       -  31 

SECTION  4.  THE  EVILS  AND  EXTENT  OF  REAR  TENEMENTS  -  36 

SECTION  5.  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  DOUBLE-DECKER    -  43 

CHAPTER    III. 
THE   OVERCROWDED   POPULATION 

SECTION  i.    TESTIMONY   ON   THE   EVILS   OF  THE   CLOSE   CROWD- 
ING OF  PEOPLE  51 
SECTION  2.    CHICAGO'S  TENEMENT  POPULATION  is  OPPRESSIVELY 

DENSE  52 

SECTION  3.    A  STUDY  OF  THE  DENSITIES  OF  POPULATION       -  53 

SECTION  4.    A   DETAILED    STUDY   OF    ROOMS  AND  APARTMENTS  58 

SECTION  5.    FAMILIES  IN  CROWDED  QUARTERS  60 
SECTION  6.    THE  SACRIFICE  OF  DECENCY,  HEALTH,  AND  MORALS 

IN  OVERCROWDED  APARTMENTS  -  67 

SECTION  7.    THE  DENSITY  is  INCREASING  IN  CHICAGO  71 

5 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    IV. 
INSIDE  SANITARY  CONDITIONS 

PAGE 

SECTION  i.    CAUSES     OF     INSANITARY     CONDITIONS    IN     HOUSES    73 

SECTION  2.  A  STUDY  OF  APARTMENTS  WITH  DEFECTIVE  LIGHT- 
ING AND  VENTILATION  77 

SECTION  3.  A  STUDY  OF  THE  AIR-SPACES  IN  OVERCROWDED 
APARTMENTS  83 

SECTION  4.  THE  EXTENT  AND  EVILS  OF  CE-LLAR  AND  BASEMENT 
DWELLINGS  -  88 

SECTION  5.    HOUSES  UNFIT  FOR  HABITATION      ...  94 


CHAPTER  V. 
DEFECTIVE  PLUMBING  AND  BATHS 

SECTION  i.    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SANITARY  PLUMBING  100 
SECTION  2.    THE     CONDITION     OF     SINKS,     CATCH-BASINS,     AND 

UNDRAINED  LOTS  101 

SECTION  3.    THE  PREVALENCE  OF  THE  OUTLAWED   PRIVY   VAULT  104 

SECTION  4.    INSANITARY  WATER-CLOSETS  105 

SECTION  5.    THE  NEED  OF  BATHS  108 

CHAPTER  VI. 
OUTSIDE    INSANITARY    CONDITIONS 

SECTION  i.    THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  OUTSIDE  SANITARY  CONDITIONS  in 

SECTION  2.    BADLY   PAVED  AND  UNCLEAN  STREETS  AND  ALLEYS  112 

SECTION  3.    THE     EXTRAVAGANCE    OF     DANGEROUS     SIDEWALKS  117 

SECTION  4.    FILTHY  VACANT  LOTS,  YARDS,  COURTS,  AND  PASSAGES  124 

SECTION  5.    OFFENSIVE  STABLES  AND  MANURE  BOXES  128 

SECTION  6.    THE  NEGLECT  OF  GARBAGE  133 

SECTION  7.    MISCELLANEOUS     OUTSIDE     INSANITARY    CONDITIONS  141 


CHAPTER  VII. 
SOCIAL   PATHOLOGY,  DISEASES   AND  DEATHS 

SECTION  i.    THE  SOURCES  AND  VALUE  OF  THE  DATA  144 

SECTION  2.    POVERTY  AND  PAUPERISM  IN  THE  TENEMENTS  145 

SECTION  3.    INTEMPERANCE  AND  BAD  HOUSING  147 
SECTION  4.    CRIME  IN  THE  HOMELESS  AND  YARDLESS  TENEMENTS  149 

SECTION  5.    SICKNESS  AND  INSANITARY  CONDITIONS  152 

SECTION  6.    DEATH-RATES    IN    NEGLECTED   DISTRICTS  154 


CONTENTS  7 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
CONCLUSION  :  A   REVIEW   OF    REMEDIAL   EFFORTS 

PAGE 

SECTION  i.  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  AND  CHICAGO'S  LACK  OF 
PREVENTIVE  MEASURES  161 

SECTION  2.  THE  TREND  OF  ADMINISTRATIVE  ORGANIZATION  IN 
OLDER  CITIES  -  162 

SECTION  3.  THE  NEW  LAWS  MOST  NECESSARY  AND  THE  IMPOR- 
TANCE OF  REGULAR  INSPECTION  164 

SECTION  4.    THE  NEED  OF  SMALL  PARKS  AND  GARDENS  166 

SECTION  5.  PUBLIC  BATHS  SHOULD  BE  RECREATIVE  AND  EDUCA- 
TIONAL -  172 

SECTION  6.    THE  WORK  OF  SANITARY  AND  HOUSING  ASSOCIATIONS  174 

SECTION  7.    THE  EXTENT  OF  REMEDIAL  EFFORTS        -  177 

APPENDIX  181 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  ....  -         203 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY;     PURPOSES  AND  IMPORTANCE 
OF    THE    INQUIRY 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  OLD   AND  THE    MENACE    OF   THE   NEW 
HOUSING    EVILS 

Section  i.  There  could  not  be  a  more  opportune  moment  for 
announcing  and  describing  the  serious  housing  problem  which 
exists  in  Chicago.  A  few  years  ago,  and  to  a  limited  extent  even 
now,  the  worst  features  of  certain  neglected  portions  of  the  city 
appeared  but  temporary  and  transitional.  The  optimism  of  citi- 
zens interested  in  this  phase  of  municipal  development  led  to  the 
belief  that  conditions  would  improve  with  time;  at  least  no  one 
could  have  done  more  than  to  prophesy  the  growth  of  a  serious 
tenement  problem.  In  fact,  it  could  not  have  been  known, 
until  the  results  of  such  an  inquiry  as  this  were  studied,  that  the 
housing  conditions  are  growing  steadily  worse,  and  that  the  slum 
now  building  is  likely  to  repeat  the  history  of  those  in  other 
cities.  An  important  factor,  on  the  one  hand,  is  the  natural 
desire  on  the  part  of  landlords  to  cover  every  inch  of  their 
ground  space  with  large  tenements  without  sufficient  provision 
for  light  and  ventilation.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  short- 
sighted policy  of  the  municipality  which  permits  the  growth 
of  housing  conditions  for  whose  improvement  years  of  agitation 
and  vigorous  effort  will  be  necessary.  The  histories  of  many 
other  cities  show  that  the  forces  which  built  their  slums  are 
almost  exactly  those  at  work  here.  Tenement-house  conditions 
in  other  cities  have  cost  the  lives  of  many  thousands  of  innocent 
working  people,  and  the  public  expenditure  of  millions,  before 
the  municipalities  have  been  able  to  destroy  the  most  dangerous 
districts.  In  view  of  what  follows,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  night 
of  the  double-decker,  the  worst  of  all  tenements,  is  enveloping 


12  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

the  West  as  yesterday  it  blackened  the  East.*  To  present  this 
new  problem  in  relation  to  the  old,  at  a  time  when  preventive  legis- 
lation and  the  enforcement  of  restrictive  laws  on  tenement-house 
construction  have  great  possibilities,  is  the  purpose  of  this  report. 


A  SMALL    AREA    IS    CHOSEN    FOR    INQUIRY    FROM    A    WILDER- 
NESS OF  BAD   HOUSING  AND   SANITARY  NEGLECT 

Section  2.  The  endeavor  has  been  to  seek  out  and  explore 
typical  or  representative  portions  of  the  city  where  the  problems 
of  the  old  and  the  menace  of  the  new  housing  evils  are  both  mani- 
fest. If  the  purpose  had  been  merely  to  select  the  worst  houses 
and  blocks  that  the  city  can  show,  portions  of  the  North  and  the 
South  sides  would  have  been  chosen.  The  Stock  Yards  district  and 
portions  of  South  Chicago  show  outside  insanitary  conditions  as- 
bad  as  any  in  the  world.  Indescribable  accumulations  of  filth 
and  rubbish,  together  with  the  absence  of  sewerage,  make  the  sur- 
roundings of  every  dilapidated  frame  cottage  abominably  insani- 
tary. These  evils  do  not  extend  over  a  large  area.  They  are, 
in  their  worst  forms,  extraordinary  and  not  typical  of  conditions, 
elsewhere  in  Chicago.  If  the  worst  evils  of  covering  the  whole 
of  lots  with  tenements,  or  the  worst  examples  of  the  misery  and 
degradation  of  rear  tenements  had  been  chosen,  certain  blocks 
in  the  First  Ward  would  have  been  investigated.  If  the  worst 
examples  had  been  chosen  of  the  destruction  to  morals  and  health 
resulting  from  overcrowded  dark  rooms,  or  the  manifold  dangers, 
to  those  who  are  compelled  to  live  in  sunless,  airless,  and  yardless 
double-deckers,  certain  blocks  in  the  Twenty-second  Ward  and 
portions  of  the  South  Side  would  have  been  selected. 

Examples  of  various  forms  of  housing  at  its  worst  are  to  be 
found  in  the  First  and  Twenty-second  wards,  and  in  the  districts 
for  eight  miles  along  the  North  and  South  branches  of  the  river. -j- 
The  districts  selected  as  typical  of  bad  conditions  throughout 
the  city  are:  First,  the  Jewish  and  Italian  district,  in  the 
Ninth  and  Nineteenth  wards,  between  Polk  Street  on  the  north, 

*The  double-decker,  or  dumb-bell,  is  described  and  defined  on  pages  43- 
46.  The  terms  are  applied  to  a  large  tenement  covering  too  much  ground 
space,  and  without  proper  provision  for  light  and  ventilation. 

t  See  appendix,  pages  181-184. 


hf  POLK. 


D 
Q 


L 


on 


D 


D 


DISTRICT  ONE 


H  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Fourteenth  Street  on  the  south,  Halsted  Street  on  the  west,  and 
Canal  Street  on  the  east;  second,  a  Polish  district  in  the  Six- 
teenth Ward,  bounded  by  Division  Street  on  the  south,  Blanche 
Street  on  the  north,  Noble  Street  on  the  east,  and  Ashland  Avenue 
on  the  west;  and  third,  a  Bohemian  district  in  the  Tenth  Ward, 
bounded  by  Sixteenth  Street  on  the  north,  Twentieth  Street  on 
the  south,  Laflin  Street  on  the  west,  and  Allport  Street  on  the 
east.*  In  these  districts  are  seen,  side  by  side,  the  old  sys- 
tem of  housing — which,  in  spite  of  its  evils,  never  presented  a 
serious  problem — and  the  beginning  of  a  new  and  much  worse 
system  with  the  appearance  of  the  double-decker.  Forty-five 
thousand  people  live  in  these  districts,  and  the  insanitary  condi- 
tions which  surround  them  are  typical  of  the  conditions  in  which 
from  three  to  four  hundred  thousand  people  in  many  parts  of 
Chicago  are  now  living. 

THE    PURPOSE    OF    THE    INQUIRY    IS    TO    LAY  A   FOUNDATION 

FOR     REFORM 

Section  3.  The  Committee,  in  publishing  this  report  of  the 
investigation,  have  in  view  certain  definite  objects.  Above  all, 
they  consider  that  accurate  knowledge  of  existing  conditions 
must  be  the  basis  for  future  reform.  As  the  results  of  their  in- 
vestigation will  probably  surprise  many  people,  who  have  believed 
that  there  is  no  serious  housing  problem  in  Chicago,  the  Com- 
mittee wish  to  say  that  the  statements  in  this  report  are  all  based 
upon  actual  facts  gathered  in  their  investigation,  which,  though 
restricted  to  a  small  area,  they  have  tried  to  make  scientific, 
thorough,  and  exhaustive.  In  presenting  the  facts,  they  have 
tried  to  cover  the  subject  intelligently,  and  to  give  under  each 
heading  a  brief  account  of  the  experiences  and  decisions  of  other 
and  older  cities  on  the  subjects  in  hand.  This  method  of  presenta- 
tion was  chosen  with  the  hope  that  those  would  be  reached  who 
might  build  upon  this  small  beginning  a  great  and  important  work 
of  reform.  Therefore,  it  should  be  understood  that  the  Committee 
have  no  desire  to  present  a  harrowing  picture  of  the  misery  of  the 
tenement-house  population  simply  to  create  a  sensation.  Indeed, 
this  report  will  be  of  little  value  unless  it  proves  an  incentive,  and 

*  See  maps  opposite. 


DISTRICT  TWO 


DISTRICT  THREE 


16  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

perhaps  a  partial  guide  in  the  future,  to  persistent  and  organ- 
ized preventive  and  reform  efforts. 

The  Committee  are  aware  of  the  many  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  obtaining  lasting  and  useful  results  in  tenement-house  reform. 
In  the  first  place,  reforms  are  apt  to  be  sporadic  and  short-lived ; 
municipal  officials  are  likely  to  be  conservative,  and  even  obstruc- 
tionists; the  slum  landlord  is  sure  to  be  shrewd  and  persistently 
attentive  to  his  own  interests.  The  history  of  almost  every  older 
city  shows  how  great  these  obstacles  are.  Liverpool  once  arose 
in  wrath  at  the  dangerous  housing  conditions  and  the  fearful 
death-rates  prevailing  in  certain  portions  of  that  city.  In  obedi- 
ence to  the  strong  public  sentiment,  the  overcrowded  houses 
were  destroyed.  The  wretched  tenants  were  compelled  to  leave 
their  old  overcrowded  houses  to  still  further  overcrowd  the  neigh- 
boring ones.  Basements,  cellars,  attics,  sheds,  and  all  available 
forms  of  shelter  were  put  to  use,  but  the  evils  meant  to  be  reme- 
died were  increased  tenfold,*  as  the  increased  death-rate  fully 
proved.  Action  being  taken,  however,  the  emotion  subsided. 

Since  1842  New  York  has  had  many  reform  movements. f 
Many  investigations  have  been  made;  again  and  again  the  city 
has  been  aroused  to  a  high  pitch  of  excitement,  but  the  efforts 
have  been  ephemeral.  Of  the  little  done,  a  part  was  injurious. 
The  double-decker  itself  was  introduced  to  slum  landlords  by 
well-meaning  reformers.  What  is  most  needed  in  all  reforms  has 
come  only  recently  to  New  York,  namely,  an  organized  body  of 
public-spirited  citizens  who  are  determined,  if  necessary  for  suc- 
cess, to  fight  another  "Ten  Years'  War."  It  is  well  for  Chicago 
to  realize,  therefore,  that  the  serious  conditions  presented  in  the 
following  pages  will  not  be  quickly  or  easily  abolished. 

OFFICIAL  NEGLECT  AND  CORRUPT   POLITICS  ARE  NOT  ALONE 
TO   BLAME  FOR  BAD    CONDITIONS 

Section  4.  The  second  obstacle  exists  in  the  fact  that  a  radi- 
cal change  in  policy  on  the  part  of  the  city  is  hardly  to  be  ex- 
pected without  the  constant  and  unmistakable  pressure  of  public 
opinion.  Being  thus  far  without  definite  demands  on  the  part  of 

*  See  Liverpool  newspapers  of  summer  of  1899. 

I  See  Veiller's  Tenement-House  Reform  in  New  York,  1834-1900. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  17 

the  people  regarding  the  enforcement  of  tenement-house  laws, 
the  city  has  permitted  the  slum  landlords  to  build  as  they  chose. 
And,  therefore,  the  onus  of  neglect  lies  not  alone  upon  the  muni- 
cipal authorities.  Many  evils  charged  to  corrupt  politics  exist 
because  there  is  an  absence  of  public  opinion  against  them. 
Most  of  the  problems  brought  out  in  this  report  are  the  products 
of  great  social  improvements  and  changes.  Within  the  last  few 
years  there  have  been  marvelous  industrial,  commercial,  and 
agrarian  revolutions,  through  which  populations  have  been  redis- 
tributed upon  the  earth;  country  districts  have  been  depopulated; 
small  factories  have  given  way  to  large  ones;  country  and  subur- 
ban stores  have  succumbed  to  the  department  and  mail-order 
stores;  the  millions  have  thronged  to  the  cities,  which  were  not 
prepared  for  their  coming.  The  municipal  authorities  had  not 
planned  to  protect  the  citizens  against  insanitary  dwellings,  and 
landlords  were  permitted  to  build  as  they  wished.  To  municipal 
governments  in  the  entire  western  world  have  been  presented  a 
thousand  new  problems.*  That  these  problems  have  not  all  had 
a  satisfactory  solution  is  not  entirely  the  politician's  fault.  Un- 
paved  and  unclean  streets,  dangerous  sidewalks,  garbage  disposal 
and  removal,  rubbish  and  refuse  upon  open  spaces,  the  outlawed 
privy  vaults,  houses  unfit  for  habitation,  damp  basement  dwell- 
ings, overcrowded,  dark,  and  unventilated  rooms  are  not  inev- 
itable or  necessarily  permanent  evils.  If  Chicago  will  take  the 
matter  in  hand,  it  can  abolish  existing  evils  and  prevent  the 
growth  of  a  great  tenement-house  population  crowded  in  stifling 
quarters.  It  can  provide  needed  breathing-spaces,  parks,  play- 
grounds, and  baths.  As  Albert  Shaw  says:  "The  abolition  of 
the  slums  and  the  destruction  of  their  virus  are  as  feasible  as  the 
drainage  of  a  swamp  and  the  total  destruction  3*  it  miasmas. "f 

*  Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain,  pages  1-19. 
t  Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain,  page  3. 


l8  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

THE     STRUGGLE     BETWEEN    THE    INTERESTS     OF    THE     INDI- 
VIDUAL  AND    THE    LARGER    INTERESTS    OF 
THE    COMMUNITY 

Section  5.  The  third  and  most  important  obstacle  to  reform 
is  the  slum  landlord.  He  will  vigorously  protect  his  property 
interests.  Indeed,  this  whole  question  resolves  itself  into  a  long 
struggle  between  the  interests  of  the  individual  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  larger  interests  of  the  commonweal  on  the  other.  In 
Chicago  the  interests  of  the  slum  landlords  have  been  thus  far 
protected  and  promoted  by  the  municipality  itself.  But  tene- 
ment-house reform  means  that  the  interests  of  landlords  owning 
property  injurious  to  the  welfare  of  tenants  and  neighbors  are 
of  secondary  importance.  To  permit  landlords  to  build  without 
careful  municipal  regulation  is  to  encourage  a  tenement-house 
blight.  For  it  should  be  understood  that  the  construction  of 
houses,  the  relation  of  one  house  to  another  on  the  same  and  on 
adjoining  lots,  and  the  size  in  height  and  length  decide  the  inside 
conditions.  In  the  absence  of  careful  municipal  regulation,  tene- 
ments are  built  without  uniform  and  adequate  provision  for  light 
and  ventilation.  Builders  of  tenements,  and  even  of  many  new 
and  cheap  apartment  buildings,  disregard  all  principles  of  good 
construction  and  erect  dangerously  insanitary  dwellings. 

In  fact,  pressure  for  the  economical  use  of  land  has  estab- 
lished within  certain  limits  a  new  and  vicious  kind. of  private 
property.  It  is  the  private  ownership  of  the  rays  of  the  sun  and 
the  health-giving  properties  of  the  air.  A  landlord  who  builds  a 
tenement  to  the  limits  of  the  lot  and  several  stories  high  takes 
from  his  neighbors  both  air  and  sunshine.  He  also  provides 
many  of  his  own  tenants  with  dark  and  foul  homes.  The  returns 
of  this  investigation  are  replete  with  such  instances.  For  the 
landlord's  tenant  and  his  neighbor's  tenants,  the  airless  and  sun- 
less rooms  nourish  disease  germs.  Babies,  almost  like  blind  fish 
inhabiting  sunless  caves,  suffer  from  ophthalmia.*  Tuberculosis 
thrives,  and  cannot  be  stamped  out  without  the  aid  of  sunshine,  j- 

*  Dr.  Bowmaker's  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes,  page  15. 
|  Dr.  S.  A.  Knopf's  Testimony,  Chapter  VII,  page  152. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  19 

It  is  the  common  testimony  of  physicians  that  the  working  people 
are  being  noticeably  affected  by  city  habitations.  People  cannot 
live  without  air  and  sunshine,  and  strange  as  it  may  appear  that 
any  one  should  have  to  plead  for  these  things,  this  Committee 
and  all  other  tenement-house  committees  exist  pre-eminently 
for  this  one  purpose ;  that  is,  to  insure  to  every  one  the  necessary 
light  and  air,  and  to  make  it  impossible  to  build  or  use  as  tene- 
ments those  houses  where  the  light  and  air  are  insufficient.  It  is 
the  mass  of  the  working  people  who  are  the  sufferers.  The  whole 
question  is,  How  long  will  interests  of  landlords,  through  igno- 
rance or  thoughtlessness,  be  allowed  to  remain  an  obstacle  to 
necessary  reform?  It  is  possible  that  at  first  many  people  will 
object  to  a  municipal  policy  of  interference  which  will  hold  in 
check  the  individual.  But  objections  of  this  kind  will  come  only 
from  those  who  have  interests  involved  or  who  know  nothing  of 
the  evils  caused  by  the  present  policy.  That  property  interests 
must  give  way  to  health  and  sanitary  necessities  is  a  recognized 
municipal  prerogative. 

When  shall  this  increased  restriction  of  the  individual  com- 
mence? New  York,  London,  Liverpool,  Glasgow,  and  Birming- 
ham were  slow  to  act  even  when  delay  meant  more  deaths,  and 
when  it  also  meant  a  larger  and  more  costly  struggle  with  slum 
landlords.  It  did  not,  however,  mean  that  the  struggle  could  be 
avoided.  The  clash  between  the  interests  of  the  individual  and 
the  needs  of  the  community  had  to  come.  To  take  away  from 
slum  landlords  their  property  and  demolish  it  is  a  costly  matter; 
$3,504,760.83  was  paid  by  the  taxpayers  of  Glasgow  for  the 
demolition  and  renovation  of  wretched  slums  in  that  city.*  Edin- 
burgh, before  1892,  spent  $2,725,240.00  for  sanitary  amelioration 
carried  out  under  an  improvement  scheme.*  New  York  has  had 
a  long  and  hard  struggle  in  destroying  two  or  three  slum  areas. 
A  million  dollars  a  year  has  been  given  by  the  city  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  small  parks  in  overcrowded  tenement  districts. 
It  cost  a  million  and  a  half  and  many  years  of  effort  to  condemn 
and  demolish  the  more  notorious  rookeries. f  Such  experiences 
have  taught  the  older  cities  the  extravagance  of  neglect  and  the 

*  Report  of  New  York  Tenement-House  Commission,  1894,  page  353. 
t  Jacob  Riis's  Ten  Years'  War,  pages  177  and  178. 


20  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

economy  of  prevention.  This  Committee  is  of  the  opinion  that 
Chicago,  being  forewarned  by  the  experiences  of  other  cities,  will 
give  immediate  thought  to  this  important  political  question  and 
prevent  the  growth  of  such  serious  conditions  as  those  afflicting 
the  older  cities. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OVERCROWDED    AREAS 

ECONOMY  OF  LAND  AND  THE  TENEMENT-HOUSE  PROBLEM 

Section  i.  There  is  no  more  important  test  of  the  tenement- 
house  conditions  than  the  amount  of  space  covered  by  buildings. 
Where  there  is  overcrowding  of  houses  upon  lots  and  blocks 
there  arise  all  of  the  most  dangerous  results  of  bringing  together, 
in  the  artificial  surroundings  of  large  cities,  vast  populations. 
Close  and  often  indecent  crowding,  natural  accumulation  of  filth, 
insufficient  provision  for  light  and  ventilation,  lack  of  yard  and 
breathing-spaces,  and  a  high  tax  upon  the  health  and  life  of  the 
people  are  a  few  of  the  results  which  inevitably  accompany  crowd- 
ing of  houses  upon  ground  space 

The  history  of  tenement-house  building  in  Chicago  is  much 
the  same  as  it  is  in  every  large  city,  in  that  it  shows  a  growing 
economy  of  land  space.  In  the  earlier  days,  when  tenements  were 
built  covering  no  more  than  forty  or  fifty  per  cent  of  the  depth 
of  the  lot,  no  interference  from  the  municipality  was  necessary. 
The  individual  could  be  permitted,  without  injury  to  the  com- 
mon-weal, to  build  as  he  chose,  since  it  was  not  then  profitable  for 
him  to  cover  more  than  fifty  per  cent  of  his  lot  with  build- 
ings. But  when  it  becomes  to  the  financial  interest  of  landlords 
to  build  high  tenements  covering  every  inch  of  the  lot,  the  muni- 
cipality should  formulate  laws  and  regulations  restricting  the 
height  of  tenements  and  limiting  the  percentage  of  the  lot  which 
may  be  covered  by  buildings.  The  time  for  such  interference 
has  been  reached. 

For  over  ten  years  Chicago  has  been  in  that  stage  of  develop- 
ment where  landlords  have  been  winning  increasing  profits  from 
large  tenements  and  groups  of  tenements,  covering  from  sixty  to 
one  hundred  per  cent  of  the  lot  space.  A  study  of  the  four  tables — 
first,  front  and  rear  houses;  second,  material  of  houses;  third, 
front  and  rear  houses  classified  according  to  stories;  fourth,  one 


22  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

story  frame  dwellings  compared  with  all  others  introduced  on 
subsequent  pages — will  supply  those  interested  with  definite  and 
valuable  information  on  the  genesis  and  evolution  of  the  present 
housing  conditions.* 

The  small  frame  house,  formerly  the  characteristic  dwelling 
of  the  working  class,  survives,  usually  in  dilapidated  form,  as  is 
shown  in  the  following  photograph,  or  has  undergone  radical 
changes.  Often  it  has  been  moved  to  the  rear  of  the  lot  to  give 
place  to  a  larger  tenement,  and  has  been  partitioned,  in  a  slovenly 
and  unsatisfactory  manner,  to  adapt  it  to  the  uses  of  more  than 
one  family.  Occasionally  the  remodeling  has  taken  the  form  of 
raising  the  small  frame  house  onto  a  lower  story  of  brick.  (See 
photograph,  page  35.) 

The  degeneration  of  the  two-story  frame  and  brick  houses 
from  the  home  of  one  family  into  a  tenement  for  several  families 
is  a  commonplace  in  the  housing  histories  of  all  large  cities.  The 
lack  of  conveniences  and  the  partitioning  of  large  rooms  into 
small  and  dark  ones  are  a  part  of  the  mischievous  results.  The 
next  step  in  the  evolution  is  the  tenement-house  built  for  several 


*See  pages  189-195. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


23 


families,  and  this  varies  in  size  from  a  two-story  house  covering 
fifty  per  cent  of  the  lot  to  a  four  or  five  story  tenement  covering 
from  eighty  to  one  hundred  per  cent  of  the  ground  space.  It  is 
now  almost  universal  in  the  tenement-house  districts  to  have 
either  one  large  tenement  or  two  smaller  ones,  or  occasionally 
three  very  small  houses,  covering  a  large  percentage  of  the  ground 
area.  This  is  very  much  the  same  history  as  that  of  London, 


New  York,  and   Boston.      Their  problems  are,  and  will  be,  very 
likely,  our  problems. 

To  prevent  the  foregoing  evils  the  older  cities  have  restrictive 
laws.  As  early  as  1879  New  York  passed  a  law  permitting  only 
sixty-five  per  cent  of  the  interior  lots  to  be  covered  by  buildings.* 
In  Boston  the  same  legal  maximum  has  been  established,  f 
Both  Boston  and  New  York  have  also  limited  the  height  of 

*Veiller's  Tenement-House  Legislation  in  New  York,  1852-1900 
page  74. 

fVeiller's  Housing  Conditions  and   Tenement   Laws,  etc.,  page  16. 


24 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


dwellings.*  To  the  shame  of  Chicago,  no  limit  in  height 
and  only  an  inadequate  one  in  depth  has  been  set  by  the 
city.  The  law  with  regard  to  depth  provides  that  ten  feet  shall 
be  left  uncovered  at  the  rear  of  the  lot,  but  it  is  not  sufficient  and 
the  law  is  not  enforced.  As  a  result,  a  landlord  may  build  upon 
every  inch  of  his  lot.  Indeed,  in  this  investigation  eighty-seven 
lots  were  found  entirely  covered.  This  is  in  violation  of  the  very 
inadequate  city  ordinance.  This  and  the  information  to  follow 
will  show  the  serious  conditions  found  in  this  small  region.  Chi- 
cago may  take  to  account  that  the  neglect  which  permitted  these 
conditions  to  arise  is  at  the  expense  of  the  health  and  welfare  of 
thousands  of  working  people  who  are  now  living  in  these  tene- 
ments. They  are  at  the  risk  of  even  greater  danger  when  the 
tenements  covering  a  large  amount  of  space  are  built  to  a  consid- 
erable height,  as  is  being  done  to  a  large  extent  already. 

OVERCROWDING  THE  BLOCK  AND   ITS  MEANING 

Section  2.  The  general  statements  in  the  last  section  find 
ample  proof  in  the  special  study  of  selected  areas.  The  per- 
centage of  space  covered  by  buildings,  the  amount  taken  up  in 
vacant  lots  and  unoccupied  spaces  in  the  forty-four  blocks  of 
District  i  are  given  in  the  following  diagram. f 


This  diagram  shows  that  two  of  the  blocks  were  covered  over 
seventy-five  per  cent  with  buildings.  Fourteen  of  the  blocks 

*  Veiller's  Housing  Conditions  and  Tenement  Laws,  etc.,  page  16. 

f  Based  upon  insurance  and  real-estate  maps  and  verified  to  a  certain 
extent  by  the  enumerators.  Like  figures  were  not  collected  for  the  other 
two  districts. 


26  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

were  covered  more  than  seventy  per  cent  of  their  area.  Twenty 
(nearly  one  half  of  the  forty-four  blocks)  were  covered -sixty-five 
per  cent  by  buildings.  It  will  be  a  great  surprise  to  most 
students  of  tenement-house  conditions  in  Chicago  to  learn  that 
so  many  blocks  were  covered  more  than  the  Boston  and  New 
York  law  permits  on  a  single  interior  lot.  Over  a  large  area  this 
is  an  amazingly  high  average,  and  clearly  and  forcibly  foreshad- 
ows what  will  be  shown  later,  namely,  the  overcrowding  which 
exists  on  many  lots  in  each  block. 

An  excellent  idea  of  what  these  figures  mean  will  be  obtained 
by  a  study  of  the  following  photographs.  The  photographs  on 
page  27,  show  how  closely  the  ground  is  built  upon.  The 
front  houses  to  the  right  run  far  to  the  rear  of  each  lot.  A 
mass  of  rear  cottage  tenements  are  placed  almost  against 
the  front  houses,  without  regard  for  light  or  ventilation. 
There  being  no  yards,  the  roofs  of  the  houses  are  utilized  as 
a  space  for  drying  clothes.  This  somber  and  hideous  conglom- 
eration of  tenements  very  clearly  shows  the  need  for  municipal 
regulation. 

The  photograph  on  page  28,  in  a  general  view,  shows  the  great 
variety  of  tenements  which  occupy  a  very  crowded  block  in  the 
Jewish  quarter.  People  are  crowded  into  the  basements.  The 
dark  passageways  between  the  houses  are  almost  the  only  open 
spaces  in  the  block.  The  view  shows  clearly  the  small,  dilapi- 
dated rear  houses,  the  poorly  constructed  two-story  frame 
and  large  three-story  brick  tenements.  The  photograph  on 
page  29  shows  a  block  built  up  almost  solidly  with  tenements. 
There  are  several  new  brick  tenements  covering  a  large  per- 
centage of  the  lot.  The  rear  of  almost  every  lot  has  a  brick 
tenement,  or  a  small  frame  house.  The  three  small  ones  at  the 
left  are  each  occupied  by  more  than  one  family.  Almost  the  only 
open  spaces  are  the  passages,  the  streets  and  alleys,  with  their 
filth  and  garbage  boxes. 

The  last  view  of  rear  tenements  in  the  Polish  district, 
(page  30)  shows  one  large  rear  house  and  many  tenements  running 
along  the  entire  length  of  the  alley,  consuming  a  large  amount 
of  ground  space.  The  old  stable  in  the  foreground  completely 
shuts  the  light  from  half  of  the  neighboring  house.  This  is  a 
fair  type  of  a  block  in  the  Polish  district.  Worse  conditions  of 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  31 

overcrowding  on   the  block    exist   in    that  quarter   than    in    the 
Jewish  and  Italian  districts,  which  we  are  now  considering. 

To  further  illustrate  the  overcrowding  by  buildings,  the  fol- 
lowing diagram  is  given  of  a  block  well  covered  by  tenements. 
In  the  middle  of  the  block  almost  all  the  houses  are  of  two 
stories.  Often  in  the  rear  a  one  or  two  story  tenement  is  seen. 
Sheds  or  one  or  two  story  tenements  occupy  the  rear  of  every 
lot.  "A"  and  "B"  are  examples  of  front  and  rear  houses  resem- 
bling the  English  "back  to  back  houses"  spoken  of  later.*  At 
the  right  end  of  the  block  the  conditions  are  extremely  bad. 


Almost  every  lot  facing  on  this  street  is  entirely  covered.  The 
height  of  the  buildings  here  accentuates  evils.  The  overcrowd- 
ing is  excessive,  and  for  parts  of  these  houses  light  and  ventilation 
are  impossible. 

The  following  photograph  (page  33)  will  supplement  the  dia- 
gram to  illustrate  how  little  uncovered  ground  space  there  is  in 
this  block.  It  has  a  population  of  over  one  thousand  people. 
The  ugliness  of  the  street,  its  wretched  tenements,  and  its  ill- 
smelling  garbage  boxes  in  front  of  each  house  cannot  be  imagined 
from  the  photograph.  Photography  seems  to  mellow  or  soften 
the  disagreeable  features,  which  when  seen  with  the  eye  are 
extremely  offensive.  The  tall  building  at  the  end  of  the  street 
is  shown  on  the  diagram  by  the  darkest  shading. 


OVERCROWDING    OF   LOT   AREAS 

Section  3.  While  what  has  already  been  said  will  show  to  a 
certain  extent  the  general  overcrowding  of  houses  which  exists 
in  this  part  of  the  city,  the  worst  conditions  can  be  seen  only  by 

*See  page  37. 


32  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

observing  the  crowding  on  certain  selected  lots.  In  this  investi- 
gation many  lots  have  been  found  so  built  upon  that  no  provision 
has  been  made  for  proper  lighting  or  ventilation.  Previous  to 
this  inquiry  it  was  supposed  that  the  housing  problem  consisted 
mainly  of  small  frame  houses.  It  was,  therefore,  a  surprise  to 
find  entire  blocks  covered  more  than  the  Boston  law  permits  on 
a  single  lot.*  The  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  on  the  Slums 
of  Great  Cities  stated  in  1894  that  fewer  people  in  the  slums  of 
Chicago  had  the  use  of  yards  than  in  either  New  York,  Balti- 
more, or  Philadelphia,  and  it  was  natural  to  infer  from  that,  that 
the  small  rear  tenement  was  universal  in  the  poorer  districts. f 
But  it  depended  upon  this  inquiry  to  show  that  628  lots,  or  thirty- 
nine  per  cent  of  all  lots  investigated,  were  covered  more  than 
sixty-five  per  cent,  which  is  the  limit  in  other  cities,  and  that  275 
lots,  or  seventeen  per  cent  of  all  lots,  were  covered  more  than 
eighty  per  cent.  After  these  figures  were  placed  before  the  Com- 
mittee, it  requested  a  list  of  lots  covered  more  than  ninety  per 
cent,  with  the  height  of  the  buildings  and  the  number  of  people 
living  in  them.  There  were  reported  144  lots  covered  from 
ninety  to  one  hundred  per  cent  by  dwellings,  exclusive  of  all 
other  buildings;  108  of  the  lots  had  houses  over  three  stories  in 
height,  and  46  had  tenements  over  four  stories  high;  3,181  people 
lived  in  these  dwellings. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  lots  covered  more 
than  the  specified  percentages  in  the  forty-four  blocks  in  District  i. 
A  few  of  the  lots  are  covered  with  factories,  warehouses, 
churches,  etc.,  but  if  that  happens  to  be  the  case  the  conditions 
of  light  and  ventilation  in  the  block  are  worse.  J  The  crowding 
of  houses  grows  steadily  worse  in  going  from  the  Italian  district 
(blocks  i  to  24)  into  the  Jewish  district  (blocks  25  to  44). 

The  reader  will  see  that  in  several  blocks  from  13  to  22  lots 
are  covered  eighty  per  cent  by  buildings.  The  worst  conditions 
seem  to  prevail  in  the  long,  narrow  blocks  of  the  Jewish  district. 
(See  map,  page  56.)  These  blocks,  34,  36,  39,  41,  and  43,  are 
also  the  most  thickly  populated  blocks  in  that  quarter.  The 

*  Report  of  the  Improved  Housing  Association  on  Chicago's  Housing 
Problem,  by  Robert  Hunter.  (Not  published.) 

t  Federal  Report  on  the  Slums  of  Great  Cities,  page  96. 
JSee  Chapter  IV.,  page  82. 


34 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


LOTS    IN    DISTRICT    I    COVERED    MORE    THAN     CERTAIN     PER- 
CENTAGES 


Block 
No. 

No.  Lots  Cov- 
ered 65  per  cent, 

No.  Lots  Cov- 
ered 80  percent. 

Block 
No. 

No.  Lots  Cov- 
ered 65  percent. 

No.  Lots  Cov- 
ered 80  per  cent. 

I 

9 

4 

23 

15 

4 

2 

2 

I 

24 

16 

7 

3 

3 

I 

25 

9 

4 

4 

7 

2 

26 

28 

8 

5 

IS 

7 

27 

8 

5 

6 

5 

i 

28 

13 

5 

7 

3 

— 

29 

9 

5 

8 

9 

4 

30 

13 

5 

9 

13 

6 

31 

16 

6 

10 

2 

i 

32 

8 

4 

ii 

— 

— 

33 

6 

4 

12 

9 

4 

34 

38 

20 

13 

21 

9 

35 

12 

ii 

14 

6 

2 

36 

44 

15 

15 

17 

— 

37 

16 

8 

16 

9 

6 

38 

9 

3 

17 

21 

9 

39 

23 

13 

18 

7 

3 

40 

28 

19 

19 

7 

2 

4i 

36 

13 

20 

8 

5 

42 

10 

7 

21 

25 

13 

43 

47 

22 

22 

10 

3 

44 

16 

4 

excessive  economy  of  ground  space,  seen  in  this  table,  in  the 
diagram  on  page  31,  and  in  the  photographs,  is  in  violation  even 
of  local  laws.  But  what  is  allowed  by  the  inadequate  laws  of 
Chicago  would  be  impossible  under  the  laws  of  other  large  cities. 
This  overcrowding  is  a  serious  matter;  a  dwelling,  or  group  of 
dwellings,  built  upon  ninety  per  cent  of  the  lot  area  causes  mani- 
fold evils.  It  not  only  makes  no  provision  for  its  own  light,  but 
also  interferes  with  the  light  and  ventilation  of  neighboring 
houses. 

The  photograph  (opposite)  is  an  illustration  of  overcrowd- 
ing. It  is  a  picture  of  a  rear  court,  taken  from  the  alley.  The 
two-story  frame  house  perched  on  a  brick  foundation,  making 
a  basement  story,  is  in  the  rear  of  a  four-story  brick  building. 
The  two  houses  cover  ninety  per  cent  of  this  lot.  The  house  at 
the  right  is  a  three-story  tenement  in  the  rear  of  a  three-story 
brick  house.  These  two  houses  cover  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the 


36  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

lot.  In  the  ba'sement  of  the  rear  house  is  a  stable  where  four 
horses  are  kept,  and  the  basement  of  the  front  house  is  a  dwell- 
ing-place. There  are  ninety-eight  people  in  the  four  houses,  and 
the  crowding  in  the  rooms  is  shocking.  There  are  fifteen  fami- 
lies crowded  on  a  small  twenty-five  foot  lot.  This  court  is  only 
10  by  25  feet,  and  it  is  inclosed  on  three  sides  by  high  brick 
walls.  The  court  is  like  the  bottom  of  a  well,  and  the  rooms 
opening  on  it  are  damp  and  unwholesome.  Eight  little  children 
live  in  the  brick  basement  at  the  left.  Their  rooms  are  never 
touched  by  sunlight,  which  reaches  the  pavement  of  the  court  for 
only  a  few  moments  each  day,  and  the  air  is  polluted  by  a  foul 
alley  and  overflowing  garbage  and  manure  boxes. 

THE  EVILS  AND  EXTENT  OF  REAR  TENEMENTS 

Section  4.  A  large  part  of  the  overcrowding  on  the  lots  is 
caused  by  the  rear  tenement.  Rear  tenements  have  always  been 
considered  the  most  unhealthful  of  dwellings.  This  is  as  true  in 
England,  where  they  are  rarely  if  ever  more  than  two  stories 
high,  as  it  is  in  New  York,  where  they  are  frequently  built  to  a 
greater  height.  Sickness,  epidemics,  high  death-rates,  are  uni- 
versally more  common  in  rear  tenements  than  in  other  dwellings. 
In  fact,  almost  all  insanitary  conditions  are  found  in  and  about 
rear  tenements.  The  houses  are  usually  in  bad  repair,  and  are 
permitted  to  become  damp  and  unwholesome.  The  front  houses 
cut  off  the  source  of  light,  and  the  rooms  are  dark.  These  tene- 
ments are,  as  a  rule,  on  an  alley,  with  windows  opening  directly 
over  manure  and  garbage  boxes.  In  some  the  ground  floor  is 
used  as  a  stable.  The  ill-smelling  privies  are  near,  and  the  filth 
of  rear  yards  and  alleys  is  all  about.  The  poorest  class  of  people 
live  in  these  houses,  consequently  there  is  often  overcrowding 
in  the  rooms.  The  demoralization  and  degradation  to  which 
the  people  living  in  the  filthy  surroundings  of  these  alley  houses 
eventually  descend  is  obvious.  With  all  these  evils  combined, 
rear  tenements  make  the  worst  possible  dwellings  for  human 
beings. 

A  realization  of  the  evils  of  some  of  the  rear  tenements  can 
be  gained  from  the  photographs.  The  first  (page  38)  shows  a 
two-story  house  with  a  basement.  It  stands  at  the  rear  of  a  large 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  37 

front  tenement,  which  cannot  be  seen  in  the  photograph,  with 
almost  no  space  between  the  two  houses.  Eight  families  live  in 
the  rear  house.  The  rooms  on  the  first  floor  in  the  front  of  the 
rear  house  are  overshadowed  by  the  front  house,  and  are  damp 
and  dark.  The  surrounding  conditions  are  very  insanitary,  and 
the  ill-smelling  broken  garbage  boxes,  overflowing  into  the  alley, 
offend  even  the  passer-by  at  the  end  of  the  alley. 

The  next  photograph  (page  39)  shows  the  general  insanitary 
conditions  which  surround  the  houses  on  both  sides  of  the  alley. 
The  first  house  on  the  right  is  a  small  dilapidated  frame  house. 
Beyond  it  are  three  larger  rear  tenements.  The  outbuildings  at 
the  left  are  all  dilapidated,  and  contain  privies  which  are  in  a  foul 
condition.  There  are  not  enough  garbage  boxes  to  supply  the 
needs,  and  the  ones  provided  are  so  seldom  cleaned  that  the 
families  dump  their  slops  and  garbage  in  the  alley. 

The  next  photograph  (page  40)  shows  a  typical  alley  scene. 
Rear  tenements  occupy  nearly  every  lot.  The  second  on  the  left 
is  a  new  brick  rear  tenement  with  a  basement.  The  second  tene- 
ment on  the  right  is  a  three-story  frame.  This  alley,  as  do  many 
others,  serves  as  a  playground  for  the  children  living  in  these 
alley  houses.  The  playground  is  filthy  and  by  no  means  a 
healthful  place  for  growing  children,  but  neither  it  nor  the  foul 
garbage  boxes  are  offensive  to  the  little  ones.  One  of  these 
children  lives  in  the  cottage,  the  basement  of  which  is  used  for  a 
stable. 

The  rear  tenements  are  often  not  unlike  the  "back  to 
back  houses"  which  have  caused  such  an  outcry  in  English 
cities.  For  example,  the  side  or  back  of  a  rear  tenement 
will  often  be  placed  almost  or  quite  against  the  rear  of  the 
front  house.  In  consequence,  parts  of  each  house  are  made 
unfit  for  habitation,  because  of  the  dark  rooms  and  the  lack 
of  through  ventilation.  Enormous  sums  of  money  have  been 
spent  by  English  municipalities  to  remodel  or  destroy  property 
of  this  kind.* 

Study  of  the  following  table  will  give  facts  concerning  the 
extent  of  rear  tenements  in  these  districts.  A  rear  tenement  is 
one  which  does  not  open  upon  the  street,  and  stands  in  the  rear 

*See  Bowmaker's  Housing  of  Working  Classes,  page  19;  or  almost  any 
book  on  English  housing  conditions. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


41 


of  another  house.  The  figures  below  show  the  number  of  front 
and  rear  tenements  and  the  number  of  people  living  in  them. 
The  diagram  shows  further  the  percentages  of  front  and  rear 
tenements  in  three  selected  blocks. 


STATISTICS    OF    FRONT    AND    REAR    HOUSES    AND    THEIR 
POPULATION 


Districts. 

Front. 

Rear. 

Total. 

No. 

802 
696 

529 
360 

Per  Cent. 

No. 

PerCent. 

One,  N.  of  Twelfth. 
One,  S.  of  Twelfth. 
Two  - 

75-5 
82.5 
68.6 
81.8 

260 
I48 
242 

80 

24.5 

17-5 
31-4 

18.2 

1,062 
844 

771 
440 

Three 

Totals             

2,387 

76.6 

730 

23-4 

3.H7 

POPULATION 


Districts. 

Front. 

Rear. 

Total. 

No. 

PerCent. 

No. 

PerCent. 

One,  N.  of  Twelfth. 
One,  S.  of  Twelfth. 
Two 

12,217 

9-395 
11,225 
6,261 

85 
80.3 
81.2 

89-3 

2,143 

1,057 
2,6oo 

745 

'5 
IQ.7 

18.8 

10.7 

14,360 
10,452 
13,825 
7,006 

Three 

Totals 

39.098 

85.6 

6,545 

14.4 

45.643 

This  diagram  and  table  shows  that  730,  or  23.4  per  cent  of  all 
houses  are  rear  houses.  In  the  Polish  district  this  percentage 
runs  very  high,  and  nearly  one-third  of  all  houses  are  rear  tene- 
ments. In  this  district  alone  there  are  242  rear  houses.  Two 
thousand  six  hundred  people  in  the  small  Polish  district,  less 
than  one-half  the  size  of  District  i,  find  it  necessary  to  live  in  the 
abominable  conditions  common  to  these  alley  houses.  Altogether 
over  six  thousand  five  hundred  people  in  the  districts  investigated 
live  in  rear  tenements.  In  the  diagram  we  see  that  in  Block  51, 
42.3  per  cent  of  all  dwellings  are  rear  houses.  One-third  of  the 


42 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


PERCENTAGE     OF   FRONT   AND     REAR     HOUSES    IN     DISTRICTS 

AND.  IN    SPECIAL    BLOCKS 

Rear. 


Front. 

Dist.  i,  N.  of  I2th. 

75-5 
Dist.  i,  S.  of  1 2th. 

82.5 

Dist.  2. 
Dist.  3. 
Total. 
Block  17 
Block  46. 
Block  51. 


dwellings  in  Block  17  face  on  the  alley.  In  this  block  there  are 
294  people  living  in  the  thirty-seven  dwellings  situated  on  the 
alley.  Dr.  Fetter  says  in  his  report:  "There  are  thirty-six  rear 
dwellings  in  a  total  of  eighty-five  in  the  block  bounded  by  Holt, 
Cleaver,  Blackhawk,  and  Bradley  streets.  In  these  rear  houses 
dwell  432  persons,  211  adults  and  221  children.  There  are  thir- 
teen blocks  in  District  i  with  over  one  hundred  persons  in  rear 
dwellings.  Every  one  of  the  ten  blocks  in  District  2  has  at  least 
147  persons,  and  six  of  them  have  over  200  persons  in  rear  dwell- 
ings."  The  average  in  the  Bohemian  district  shown  in  this  table 
is  low,  largely  because  the  small  triangular  blocks  do  not  admit 
of  rear  dwellings,  but  in  the  other  blocks  the  average  of  rear 
dwellings  is  quite  high. 

To  stop  the  growth  of  these  evils  foreign  cities  have  passed 
restrictive  laws  which  are  preventive.  Miles  of  sunless,  ill-venti- 
lated back  to  back  houses  and  rear  tenements  have  been  closed, 
at  such  great  cost  in  most  of  the  older  cities  that  they  have 
learned  the  hard  lessons  of  neglect,  and  appreciate  the  wisdom  of 
prevention.  Chicago  has  upon  her  statute  books*  a  law  which 
provides  that  there  shall  be  spaces  between  front  and  rear  houses 
as  follows : 

*  See  Veiller's  Housing  Conditions  and   Tenement  Laws,  etc.,  page  40. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  43 

If  one  story 10  feet. 

If  two  stories 15  feet. 

If  three  stories 20  feet. 

If  four  stories 25  feet. 

But  the  law  is  entirely  ignored  by  builders,  and  there  are  hundreds 
of  flagrant  violations. 


THE   GROWTH    OF   THE    DOUBLE-DECKER    AND     ITS     MENACE 

TO    CHICAGO 

Section  5.  Overcrowding  on  space  is  done  either  by  building 
two  or  three  houses  on  the  lot,  as  has  been  shown,  or  by  building 
a  single  large  tenement  covering  the  entire  lot.  The  problem  is 
to  prevent  the  growth  of  this  large  tenement.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  realize  that  Chicago  has  entered  upon  a  new  era  in  ten- 
ement-house building.  It  is  an  era  which  promises  a  regular 
and  determined  growth  of  this  tenement  which  offers  great  dis- 
comfort to  the  wretched  people  sheltered  under  its  roof.  A  city 
of  double-deckers  would  be  indeed  "a  homeless  city. "  A  slum  of 
small  houses  may  be  a  serious  municipal  problem,  but  the  slum 
of  double-deckers,  which  is  likely  to  appear  if  our  lax  municipal 
policy  continues,  is  a  certain  and  appalling  evil. 

The  two  photographs  following  (pages  44,  45)  represent  two 
good  examples  of  this  tenement.  They  are  handsome  enough  out- 
side, and  appear  to  be  quite  well  built.  A  casual  observer  might 
even  consider  them  a  very  good  sort  of  home  for  poor  people. 
Those  unacquainted  with  the  lives  of  the  people  living  in  these 
tenements,  and  those  without  imagination,  might  look  at  them 
with  considerable  local  pride  in  comparison  with  the  slum  dwellings 
of  village  communities  or  foreign  cities.  But  these  people  do  not 
understand  the  real  evils  of  these  large  tenements.  The  dumb-bell, 
or  double-decker,  was  described  as  follows  by  the  New  York 
Tenement  Commission  of  1894:*  It  "is  the  one  hopeless  form  of 
tenement  construction.  ...  It  cannot  be  well  ventilated;  it 
cannot  be  well  lighted;  it  is  not  safe  in  case  of  fire.  .  .  .  Direct 
light  is  only  possible  for  the  rooms  at  the  front  and  rear.  The 
middle  rooms  must  borrow  what  light  they  can  from  dark  hall- 
ways, the  shallow  shafts,  and  the  rear  rooms.  Their  air  must 

*See  page  13. 


46  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

pass  through  other  rooms  or  tiny  shafts,  and  cannot  but  be  con- 
taminated^ before  it  reaches  them.  A  five-story  house  of  this 
character  contains  apartments  for  eighteen  or  twenty  families,  a 
population  frequently  amounting  to  one  hundred  people,  and 
sometimes  increased  by  boarders  or  lodgers  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  or  more. "  Mr.  Jacob  Riis  adds:*  "The  Committee,  after 
looking  in  vain  through  the  slums  of  the  old  world  cities  for 
something  to  compare  the  double-deckers  with,  declared  that,  in 
their  setting,  the  separateness  and  sacredness  of  home  life  were 
interfered  with,  and.  evils  bred,  physical  and  moral,  that  'conduce 
to  the  corruption  of  the  young. '  ' 

Double-deckers  are  being  built  almost  every  day  in  Chicago. 
In  this  investigation  of  the  small  territory  on  the  West  Side, 
eighty-seven  of  these  dwellings  have  been  found  and  many  more 
approaching  this  type.  All  of  these  large  tenements  have  been 
built  since  the  passage  of  the  law  compelling  the  plans  and  con- 
struction to  be  approved  by  the  Department  of  Health  and  the 
Building  Department.  In  addition,  it  will  be  remembered  that 
144  lots  were  found  covered  more  than  ninety  per  cent  of  their 
area  by  dwellings. 

One  of  the  worst  of  these  double-deckers  is  shown  on  page  45, 
and  following  is  a  side  view  of  the  same  tenement.  The  genesis 
of  the  dumb-bell  can  clearly  be  seen  by  the  way  this  is  built.  It  is 
a  front  and  rear  tenement  joined  together  by  passageways. 
Another  double-decker  has  forty  tenements,  each  of  which  rent  for 
four  to  seven  dollars  monthly.  There  are  127  people  living  in  it. 
Some  apartments  are  badly  overcrowded.  For  instance,  there 
is  one  set  of  three  small  rooms  in  which  six  adults  and  four  chil- 
dren live.  Two  of  the  rooms  are  dark.  Another  apartment  of 
two  rooms  has  six  people  living  in  it.  Another  apartment  of 
three  rooms,  all  of  which  are  dark,  houses  three  children  and  six 
adults.  In  this  tenement-house  there  are  seventy  dark  rooms,  most 
of  which  are  bedrooms.  The  photograph  introduced  on  page  48  is  a 
picture  of  the  interior  court  of  this  great  building.  It  is  an  area 
of  seven  feet  seven  inches  by  eighty-two  feet.  The  photograph 
suggests  the  dark,  damp  well  by  which  the  adjoining  rooms  are 
aired.  Some  apartments  have  no  windows  opening  upon  any 
other  space.  The  sun  reaches  the  bottom  for  a  few  moments. 

*See  "A  Ten  Years'  War,"  page  57. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  49 

only  each  day,  and  the  lower  rooms  opening  upon  it  are  always 
dark. 

It  is  well  to  consider  the  result  of  permitting  a  further  growth 
of  the  double-decker.  These  large  tenements  not  only  rob  others 
of  light,  air,  and  ventilation,  but  do  not  provide  for  their  own, 
and  the  results  are  dark  rooms  and  other  insanitary  conditions. 
Imagine,  for  the  sake  of  illustration,  a  block  in  which  every  lot 
is  covered  by  these  large  insanitary  tenements;  the  result  would 
be  a  block  such  as  is  shown  below: 


If  landlords,  with  greed  for  profits  and  economy  of  ground 
space,  continue  to  erect  such  tenements,  the  city  man  will  soon 
have  new  conditions  to  confront.  The  factory  by  day,  the  tene- 
ments by  night,  will  be  his  environment.  By  living  in  the  city, 
man  has  divorced  himself  from  the  soil.  He  must  now  live  in 
rooms  where  the  sun  never  enters.  The  air  he  breathes  must 
reach  him  through  dark  passages  and  foul  courts.  He  must  be 
content  with  about  two  yards  square*  of  earth's  space  for  him- 
self, for  each  one  of  his  children,  for  each  one  of  his  thousand 
close  neighbors,  and  for  each  one  of  their  children.  These  re- 
strictions of  the  crowded  tenements  become  all  the  more  oppress- 
ive when  they  are  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  past  lives  of  most  of 
the  inhabitants  of  these  crowded  districts.  Comparing  the  life 

*  See  page  88. 


50  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

of  the  dweller  in  the  city  to  that  of  the  olive-grower  of  Southern 
Italy,  or  the  plowman  of  Roumania — the  ancestors  of  many 
tenement-house  dwellers — the  hardships  of  the  present  are  more 
serious  than  those  of  the  past;  for  whatever  difficulties  life  of- 
fered, the  people  still  had  air  to  breathe  and  expanse  of  earth. 

This  overcrowding  has  been  prevalent  for  many  years  in  the 
older  cities;  and  it  partly  explains  why  the  death-rates  of  the 
newer  American  cities  are  so  much  lower  than  those  of  the  older 
foreign  cities.  Here  the  newness  and  open  construction  of  the 
dwellings  have  been  important  agents  in  preventing  illness,  and 
in  keeping  down  the  death-rates.  In  contrast  to  the  sunny  short- 
lived frame  cottages  (now  passing  away)  are  the  century-old  stone 
and  brick  houses  of  foreign  cities.  The  recently  constructed 
dwelling-houses,  with  their  frame  walls,  are  aired  and  purified  by 
sun  and  wind.  The  old  well-built  brick  and  stone  houses  of  for- 
eign cities  are  filthy  and  alive  with  disease  germs.  One  of  the 
witnesses  before  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Housing  of  the 
Working  Classes  testified  that:  "In  Liverpool  nearly  one-fifth 
of  the  squalid  houses,  where  the  poor  live  in  the  closest  quarters, 
are  reported  as  always  infected,  that  is  to  say,  the  seat  of  infec- 
tious disease.  It  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  among  the  fever 
dens  of  that  city  overcrowding  is  growing  less,  owing  to  the  fall 
of  the  population  which  mortality  produces."* 

The  double-decker  begins  again  this  train  of  misery,  which  is 
a  menace  to  the  coming  century,  a  force  for  evil  creeping  into 
the  newer  cities  while  the  citizens  are  unaware,  but  which  might 
be  averted  if  they  would  open  their  eyes  to  see  the  danger  and 
would  assume  the  responsibility  of  its  prevention.  While  we  may 
congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  past,  we  must  forewarn  ourselves 
ot  the  future. 

*  Report  of  Lords  Committee  on  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes, 
Vol.  II.,  pp.  498-499. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  OVERCROWDED  POPULATION 

TESTIMONY    ON     THE     EVILS     OF    THE     OVERCROWDING      OF 

PEOPLE 

Section  i.  The  density  of  population  is  an  important  con- 
sideration in  estimating  the  evils  of  tenement-houses.  Over- 
crowding is  common  among  working  people,  and  it  is  found  in 
its  worst  form  among  the  very  poorest  of  the  tenement-house 
inhabitants.  Overcrowding  is  one  method  of  reducing  rent 
charges,  and  as  the  necessity  for  a  low  rent  is  most  pressing 
among  the  very  poor,  the  overcrowding  often  becomes  frightful. 
Not  only  among  the  very  poor  is  overcrowding  found,  but  also 
many  of  the  thrifty  and  industrious  of  the  working  class,  especi- 
ally the  Polish,  make  constant  efforts  to  reduce  the  rents  of 
their  narrow  quarters  by  keeping  lodgers.  One  of  the  most 
important  reasons  for  the  overcrowded  sweat-shops  is  the  desire 
to  reduce  the  rent  cost  in  the  cost  of  production.  These  and 
many  other  causes  increase  overcrowding. 

The  evils  are  manifold.  The  medical  officer  of  the  London 
County  Council  has  shown  that  the  death-rate  steadily  increases 
with  the  density  of  population.*  The  secretary  of  the  New  York 
Tenement-House  Commission  of  1894!  says  that  overcrowding 
has  evil  effects  of  various  kinds,  for  example:  "Keeping  children 
up  and  out  of  doors  until  midnight  in  warm  weather,  because 
rooms  are  almost  unendurable;  making  cleanliness  of  house  and 
street  difficult;  filling  the  air  with  unwholesome  emanations  and 
foul  odors  of  every  kind;  producing  a  state  of  nervous  tension; 
interfering  with  the  separateness  of  home  life;  leading  to  a  pro- 
miscuous mixing  of  all  ages  and  sexes  in  a  single  room,  thus  break- 
ing down  the  barriers  of  modesty  and  conducing  to  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  young,  and  occasionally  to  revolting  crimes." 

*Bowmaker's  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes,  page  15. 
tSee  Report,  page  12. 

5' 


53  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

The  Royal  Commission  of  1884,  in  London,  gathered  a  wealth 
of  testimony  on  the  evils  of  overcrowding.*  In  England  the 
school  board  visitors,  clergymen,  charity  agents,  and  others 
know  far  more  intelligently  and  intimately  than  similar  workers 
in  this  country  the  lives  of  the  poor  in  their  homes.  From  their 
testimony  it  was  gathered  that  immorality,  perverted  sexuality, 
drunkenness,  pauperism,  and  many  forms  of  debauchery  were 
caused  in  some  instances,  in  others  abetted,  by  the  indecent  over- 
crowding which  existed.  The  testimony  further  showed  most  dis- 
tressing physical  results  due  to  overcrowding.  High  death-rates; 
a  pitiful  increase  in  infant  mortality;  terrible  suffering  among 
little  children;  scrofula  and  congenital  diseases;  ophthalmia,  due 
to  dark,  ill-ventilated,  overcrowded  rooms;  sheer  exhaustion  and 
inability  to  work;  encouragement  of  infectious  diseases,  reducing 
physical  stamina,  and  thus  producing  consumption  and  diseases 
arising  from  general  debility,  were  some  of  the  evils  of  over- 
crowding. With  these  facts  in  view,  the  following  statements  of 
overcrowding  of  the  districts  investigated  in  Chicago  will  perhaps 
be  more  intelligently  considered  by  the  general  public. 

CHICAGO'S  TENEMENT-HOUSE  POPULATION   is  OPPRES- 
SIVELY DENSE 

Section  2.  It  is  often  said,  and  it  is  probably  quite  true,  that 
New  York  has  the  densest  and  most  overcrowded  population  in 
the  world.  But  no  idea  can  be  gained  of  the  comparative  evils 
of  overcrowding  in  two  cities  entirely  unlike  each  other,  by  a 
comparison  of  the  density  of  population  per  acre.  The  density 
of  population  per  acre  in  the  Polish  quarter  in  Chicago  is  three 
times  that  of  the  most  crowded  portions  of  Tokio,  Calcutta,  and 
many  other  Asiatic  cities. f  On  the  other  hand,  Chicago's  densest 
quarters  are  not  as  thickly  populated  as  those  in  New  York. 
And  yet  all  of  these  cities  are  said  to  have  stifling  conditions  of 
overcrowding.  It  is  said  that  Asiatic  cities,  although  having  in 
their  overcrowded  portions  only  a  third  of  the  population  per 

acre  of  one  of  our  districts,  have  the  most  serious  and  oppressive 

% 

*  Report,  Housing  of  Working  Classes,  Vol.  I,  pp.  13-14. 

"fSee  Dr.  Roger  S.  Tracey's  tables  in  New  York  Tenement-House 
Report,  1894,  pp.  256-257.  «. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


53 


conditions  of  overcrowding  in  the  world.  Of  course  this  simply 
means  that  a  comparison  of  people  per  acre  in  various  cities  gives 
one  a  very  superficial  idea  of  the  real  conditions  of  overcrowding. 
Chicago  has  larger  houses  than  Tokio,  and  New  York  has  larger 
tenements  than  either.  If  all  houses  in  the  districts  investigated 
were  as  large  as  a  typical  double-decker,  a  population  of  seven 
hundred  persons  per  acre  would  not  be  oppressive.  And  although 
as  is  shown  in  older  cities  certain  terrible  and  for  us  altogether 
new  evils  are  likely  to  arise  because  of  so  many  people  living 
together  on  a  single  acre,  one  of  the  evils  would  not  be,  neces- 
sarily, dense  crowding  of  population.  That  overcrowding  is  not 
always  associated  with  a  large  population  on  a  given  acre  is  shown 
by  the  conditions  prevailing  in  certain  large  and  fashionable 
apartment  buildings.  In  considering  our  density  of  population 
we  must  remember  that  n.8  per  cent  of  the  front  and  35.4  per 
cent  of  the  rear  tenements  are  houses  of  one  story.*  Over  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  rear  tenements  are  two  stories  and  under,  and 
about  sixty-two  per  cent  of  the  front  houses  are  so  classed.  Con- 
sidering the  size  of  our  dwellings,  our  density  of  population  is 
most  appalling.  It  is  very  probable,  if  we  could  compare  the 
height  of  the  dwelling  and  its  density  of  population  in  the  Jewish, 
Italian,  Polish,  and  Bohemian  districts,  with  the  like  in  districts 
elsewhere,  the  real  density  would  equal  the  worst  in  the  world. 


A   STUDY    OF   THE   DENSITIES   OF   POPULATION 

Section  3.  The  following  table  is  the  first  of  a  series  to  show 
the  density  of  population  in  the  portions  of  the  city  covered  by 
this  inquiry: 

STATISTICS    OF   POPULATION 


District. 

Population. 

Families. 

District  I  N  of  Twelfth 

Id.  ^60 

3,108 

District  I   S  of  Twelfth            

IO  4C2 

2  060 

District  2,  Polish  

I  -1.82C 

2,7l6 

District  3   Bohemian 

7  006 

I  ^44. 

Total 

4.C  64.  •} 

Q.4.28 

*See  Appendix,  page  191. 


54 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


As  will  be  seen,  this  investigation  covered  the  conditions  of 
9,428  families,  or  45,643  individuals. 

The  following  table  shows  the  density  of  population  per  acre. 
But  the  averages  in  this  table  include  streets  and  alleys,  and  it 
therefore  is  not  the  same  as  the  one  printed  later. 


DENSITY    OF   POPULATION    PER   ACRE 
COMPARISON   BY    DISTRICTS 


District. 

Gross  Area 
in  Acres. 

Population. 

Persons  to 
the  Acre. 

District  I                  

I  ~V7  ~\ 

24  812 

I  go 

District  2  -- 

W 

n  82; 

265  8 

District  3 

•12 

1  006 

2IQ 

Total  

221.^ 

AC  64.^ 

2o6  2 

The  greatest  density  is  in  the  Polish  district,  and  the  least 
density  in  the  Italian  and  Jewish  districts.  It  will  be  interesting, 
merely  for  the  sake  of  comparison,  to  place  alongside  of  these 
figures  some  others,  showing  the  conditions  in  certain  towns  having 
a  population  of  the  same  size  as  that  covered  in  this  inquiry. 


Name  of  City. 

Gross  Area 
in  Acres. 

Population 
1900. 

Persons  to 
the  Acre. 

Norfolk,  Va  

2,240.00 

46.624 

20.8 

\Vaterbury  Conn 

2  400  OO 

4C  8^O 

in  o 

Holyoke,  Mass. 

10,464.00 

AC.  712 

4..O 

Fort  Wayne  Ind. 

^  1.OO  OO 

4.C  i  K 

n6 

Youngstown  O              - 

6  144  oo 

44  88; 

7  4. 

These  Districts 

221  ^ 

d?  643 

2o6  2 

Of  course  in  these  towns  the  houses  are  small  and  there  is 
ample  ground  space,  but  it  is  fair  to  remember  that  in  Chicago 
many  of  the  people  in  these  badly  overcrowded  districts  are  still 
living  in  the  little  village  homes  of  one  and  two  stories.  To  be 
sure  they  are  crowded  in  most  instances  to  the  rear  of  the  lot, 
but  that  accentuates  the  evils  of  a  dense  population.  By  com- 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


55 


parison  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  districts  investigated  there  is  a 
great  crowding  of  population  in  a  small  area. 

The  figures  to  follow  give  the  density  per  acre  in  each  block 
of  the  first  two  districts  and  a  final  summary. 


DENSITY   OF   POPULATION   PER   ACRE    BY    BLOCKS 
DISTRICTS    I    AND    2 


~-d 

6° 

Zffl 

a  • 

B| 

<  0 

•"< 

D 

fc.s 

>-,aJ 
._  <j 

£< 

<u  u 
Q  u 

c. 

"o.* 

62. 

ZM 

a  ^ 

gS 

<  b 
**•< 

1.S 

£>SU 

!< 

V  ,_ 
Q« 

"°"d 

6« 

ZM 

a  • 

£g 

<d 
*-< 
"  _ 

KS 

!^<U 

11 

A  ^ 
Q£ 

I 

4.48 

214 

19 

1.9 

25O 

37 

i-7 

326 

2 

1.9 

283 

2O 

1.6 

267 

38 

1.63 

230 

3 

1.9 

181 

21 

4-97 

148 

39 

1.6 

295 

4 

1.82 

184 

22 

2.05 

287 

40 

2.8 

249 

5 

4.04 

219 

23 

2 

254 

4i 

2.8 

327 

6 

1.9 

350 

24 

I.9 

254 

42 

1.65 

190 

7 

I  .Q 

290 

25 

1.7 

I76 

43 

2.7 

283 

8 

I  «o 

192 

26 

2.9 

I9O 

44 

2.82 

253 

9 

4.24 

268 

27 

1.6 

l62 

45 

3-41 

333 

10 

1.9 

177 

28 

1.65 

227 

46 

3-41 

3?2 

ii 

1.9 

196 

29 

1.63 

139 

47 

3.21 

368 

12 

i-7 

205 

30 

2.8 

150 

48 

3.15 

368 

13 

3-7 

247 

31 

1.68 

280 

49 

7-6 

239 

14 

1.66 

'234 

32 

1.65 

195 

5° 

6.2 

375 

1| 

!.65 

412 

33 

I.6S 

142 

51 

3-5 

457 

16 

1.66 

194 

34 

2.8 

292 

52 

3-53 

372 

17 

4.2 

357 

35 

1.65 

248 

53 

3-4 

286 

18 

1.9 

262 

36 

2.7 

396 

54 

3-27 

340 

SUMMARY   OF   DISTRICTS 


District. 

Net  Area. 

Density  per  Acre. 

District 

i,  N  of  Twelfth  Street  - 

58.67 

24.4.6 

District 
District 

I,  S.  of  Twelfth  Street  
I,  total 

42.11 
100.78 

248.2 
216.3 

District 

2  (Polish) 

40.68 

-I-JQ.8 

This  table  shows  in  a  most  interesting  way  the  varied  densities 
of  the  different  blocks.  In  certain  blocks  the  density  falls  to  139 
and  142  persons  per  acre,  which  are  only  a  few  more  persons  than 


W.  FOURTEEHTH     '  or 

I39-I6E        .176-195          2O5-25O        e53-260        280-295       .5Z6-.350 


DENSITY  OF   POPULATION   DISTRICT  ONE 


W.  D/V/S/OM 

200  to  250    250  to  300   300  to  350    350  to  400 


DENSITY  OF    POPULATION   DISTRICT  TWO 


58  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

are  housed  on  certain  lots  in  other  portions  of  the  districts,  but, 
as  it  happens,  the  density  in  certain  rooms  of  both  of  these  blocks 
is  frightful.  In  both  instances  the  houses  are  usually  small  and 
a  great  deal  of  space  is  occupied  by  factories,  stores,  livery- 
stables,  etc.,  which  have  no  population.  The  population  on  the 
other  hand  in  certain  portions  runs  to  a  great  density,  and  in 
blocks  15  and  51  there  are  over  400  persons  per  acre.  The  con- 
ditions which  result  from  such  densities  are  pictured  in  the  first 
part  of  the  chapter,  but  to  understand  how  dense  the  popula- 
tion really  is,  Dr.  Frank  Fetter's  figures  are  herewith  inserted: 

"The  area  of  Chicago  is  187  square  miles,  which  contain 
119,768  acres.*  At  200  per  acre  this  area  would  hold  a  popula- 
tion of  23,953,600,  and  at  270  persons  per  acre  it  would  house 
32,337,360.  Let  one  imagine  this  vast  multitude  of  people,  equal 
to  the  whole  population  of  England,  on  the  present  area  of  Chi- 
cago and  he  will  have  an  idea  of  what  is  meant  by  a  population 
of  from  two  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  seventy  persons  per 
acre.  The  density  of  some  of  the  blocks  is  over  four  hundred 
per  acre.  If  this  were  extended  over  the  whole  area  it  would 
mean  that  nearly  the  entire  population  of  the  United  States  fifteen 
years  ago  could  be  housed  in  Chicago.  This,  however,  is  far 
from  being  the  maximum  density  possible,  for  a  large  part  of 
these  districts  is  covered  with  small  detached  buildings.  In  one 
lot  of  less  than  one-seventh  of  an  acre  in  one  of  the  newer  tene- 
ments one  hundred  and  twenty-five  people  are  housed,  or  at  the 
rate  of  nine  hundred  per  acre.  Applying  this  figure  to  the  whole 
area  of  the  city  would  mean  that  more  than  the  population  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere  could  be  housed  in  Chicago." 

A    DETAILED    STUDY    OF    THE    ROOMS    AND    APARTMENTS    TO 

THE    HOUSE 

Section  4.  What  precedes  shows  very  graphically  the  over- 
crowding which  exists  in  these  districts  of  the  city.  But  some 
other  figures  collected  in  the  inquiry  will  add  valuable  details  to 
these  general  statements.  The  statistics  following  will  show  the 
number  of  apartments,  or  tenements,  in  each  tenement-house. 

*This  is  approximate.     The  actual  figures  are  122,240  acres  in  Chicago. 
See  Bulletin  Federal  Bureau  of  Labor,  September,  1900. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


59 


NUMBER    OF   APARTMENTS    PER   DWELLING 


District. 

In  Front. 

In  Rear. 

Total. 

-°.E 
ZQ 

Number 
Apartm'ts. 

Ratio 
Apts.  to 
Dwellings. 

Number 
Dwellings. 

OJ^ 

~K  ^ 

Ratio 
Apts.  to 
Dwellings. 

Number 
Dwellings. 

Number 
Apartm'ts. 

o  m 

'B  '  c 
""o 

District  i  
District  2--- 
District  3.-- 

Total  

1,498 
529 
360 

4,705 

2,242 

1,413 

3-14 
4.27 

3-92 

408 
242 
80 

769 

554 
176 

1.88 

2.28 

2.2 

1,906 
771 
440 

5.474 
2,796 
1,589 

2.87 

3.62 

3.61 

2,387 

8,360 

3-5 

730 

i,499 

'  2.05 

3,117 

9,859 

3.16 

These  figures  show  that  the  average  number  of  apartments  to 
a  house  is  over  three.  But  this  is  deceiving,  as  averages  always 
are.  Some  tenement  buildings  have  a  very  large  number  of 
apartments;  for  instance,  one  tenement-house  has  forty  apart- 
ments. A  great  many  have  from  ten  to  twenty  apartments.  And 
there  were  five  hundred  and  nine  tenement  buildings  in  these 
districts  having  over  eight  apartments  in  each.  Despite  the  large 
tenement-houses,  the  average  is  very  low.  It  is  brought  down  to 
3.16  apartments  per  house  by  the  great  number  of  tiny  rear  tene- 
ments with  one  and  two  families  or  apartments.  In  the  Polish 
district,  where  the  population  is  most  dense,  there  are  4.27  apart- 
ments to  a  front  house.  This  shows  that  the  apartments  in  that 
district  shelter  more  people  per  acre  than  those  in  District  i ; 
that  is,  the  apartments  average  somewhat  over  three  to  each 
tenement-house,  and  the  following  figures  show  that  in  the  average 
apartment  there  are  somewhat  over  three  rooms.  The  average 
home,  therefore,  of  the  working  people  in  these  districts  is 
approximately  an  apartment  of  three  rooms  in  a  tenement-house 
accommodating  three  families. 

The  following  table  shows  that  the  density  of  population, 
averaging  in  the  Polish  district  339.8  and  in  the  Italian  and 
Jewish  districts  216.3  per  acre,  is  not  a  density  of  people  living 
in  large  double-deckers,  but  in  houses  which  average  3.16 
apartments  to  the  dwelling  and  3.65  rooms  to  the  apartment. 
It  is  clear  that  this  means  an  oppressive  density  in  the  rooms  of 
these  tenements. 


6o 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


NUMBER  ROOMS   PER  APARTMENT   IN    THE   THREE    DISTRICTS 


District. 

In  Front  Houses. 

In  Rear  Houses. 

Total. 

No. 
A  parts. 

No. 
Rooms. 

Ratio. 

No. 
Aparts. 

No. 
Rooms. 

Ratio. 

No. 
Aparts. 

No. 
Rooms. 

Ratio. 

District  i--- 
District  2  — 
District  3.-- 

Total-  — 

4,705 
2,242 

1,413 

17,550 

8,374 
5,258 

3-73 
3-73 
3-72 

769 

55i 
176 

2,397 
i,943 
509 

3-n 
3-5 
2.89 

5,474 
2,796 
1,589 

19,947 
10,317 

5.767 

3-64 

3-68 
3.62 

8,360 

31,182 

3-73 

1,499 

4,849 

3-23 

9,859 

36,031 

3-65 

FAMILIES  IN  CROWDED  QUARTERS 

Section  5.  In  a  certain  sense  averages  always  convey  wrong 
impressions.  The  fact  that  the  average  apartment  is  of  some- 
what over  three  rooms  partially  conceals  the  fact  that  many 
apartments  are  of  one  and  two  rooms.  The  worst  conditions,  of 
course,  prevail  in  these  rooms.  The  diagram  just  following  will 
explain  what  is  meant.  It  illustrates  an  examination  of  571 
apartments,  showing  the  number  of  families  having  one,  two, 
three,  four,  five,  six,  and  seven  rooms  each. 


571     APARTMENTS    CLASSIFIED  ACCORDING    TO    THE    NUMBER 

OF  ROOMS 


7  Rooms 
6  Rooms 
5  Rooms 
4  Rooms 
3  Rooms 
2  Rooms 
I  Room 


As  before,  it  is  shown  that  the  largest  number  of  families 
occupy  three  and  four  rooms.  Ten  families  occupy  but  one  room 
each,  and  one  hundred  and  sixteen  families  occupy  but  two  rooms 
each.  This  last  is  about  twenty  per  cent  of  all  families.  Com- 
puting from  this  percentage,  which  is  based  upon  an  examination 
too  limited  to  be  safely  used  without  question,  we  find  that 
of  the  9,428  families  living  in  the  entire  three  districts,  1,971 
families  are  living  in  apartments  of  but  two  rooms  each.  1.7  per 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


6l 


cent  occupy  but  one  room.     An  estimate  with  this  as  a  basis  indi- 
cates that  167  families  are  living  in  but  one  room  each. 

To  say  that  an  apartment  has  two  or  three  rooms  gives  the 
ordinary  reader  an  exaggerated  notion  of  the  size  of  these  quar- 
ters. When  one  sees  a  statement  concerning  two  and  three  room 
tenements,  one  unconsciously  likens  them  to  those  with  which  he 
is  most  familiar.  To  know  what  the  following  figures  mean,  that 
forty-one  per  cent  of  all  apartments  investigated  have  under  three 
hundred  square  feet  of  floor  area,  let  any  one  measure  off  in  one 
direction  by  seven  paces  the  length,  and  at  right  angles  by  five 
paces  the  width,  and  he  will  have  about  three  hundred  square  feet 
of  floor  area. 

FLOOR  AREA  OF  APARTMENTS  BY  SELECTED  BLOCKS 


Location. 

Number  of  Apartments,  with  Floor  Area. 

Under  300 
Sq.  Feet. 

3oo  to  399 
Sq.  Feet. 

400  to  409 
Sq.  Feet. 

Over  500 
Sq.  Feet. 

Block  15 

35 
i5 
152 

2 
12 

51 
32 
30 
34 
17 

30 

25 
4 
15 

12 

31 
24 
I 

I 
4 

Part  of  Block  34                           _     - 

Selected  houses  in  District  i 

Selected  houses  in  District  2 

Selected  houses  in  District  3  - 

Total     _-     - 

216 
41. 

164 
*i. 

86 
16.1 

61 
n.6 

Percentages    . 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  APARTMENTS  ACCORDING  TO  FLOOR  SPACE 

PERCENTAGE  IN  EACH  OF  THE  FOUR  CLASSES 

FLOOR   AREA 


to   399 
"$06  '  '  * 

400 

and    over 


500 


-' 

n 

n 

62 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


CLASSIFICATION    OF  527  APARTMENTS   ACCORDING  TO  FLOOR 

SPACE 


Over  500  sq.  ft. 
400  to  499 
300  to  399 
Under  300 

61 

86 

164- 

216 

It  will  be  seen  that  380  apartments  have  less  than  400  square 
feet  of  floor  area,  and  that  216,  or  41  per  cent,  have  space  vary- 
ing from  80  to  300  square  feet.  An  estimate  on  this  basis  indi- 
cates that  4,042  of  the  9,859  apartments  have  less  than  300 
square  feet  of  floor  area.  It  would  be  shocking  to  believe  that 
4,042  families  are  crowded  in  this  small  area  for  all  the  purposes 
of  life.  Eating,  sleeping,  giving  birth  to  children,  the  nursing 
and  rearing  of  children,  the  care  for  the  sick  and  the  care  for  the 
dying  are  all  managed  after  some  painful  fashiorrnn  these  cramped 
living  quarters.  Any  one  who  will  measure  this  space  off  on  the 
floor  will  agree  that  it  is  inhumane  and  hardly  credible. 

The  few  instances  which  follow,  of  the  number  of  people  living 
in  crowded  quarters,  are  not  chosen  because  they  are  the  worst. 
There  is  no  need  for  that,  even  the  good  (comparatively  speak- 
ing) conditions  denote  painful  overcrowding. 


No.  Rooms. 

No.  Persons. 

Floor  Area. 

Average  per  Person. 

3 

7 

228  sq.  ft. 

33  sq.  ft. 

3 

8 

228 

28 

2 

3 

96 

32 

3 

6 

I76 

28 

2 

6 

1  68 

28 

3 

10 

320 

32 

The  apartments  indicated  by  these  figures  are  inevitably 
uncomfortable  and  are  never  free  from  the  friction  of  overcrowd- 
ing. If  there  are  over  four  thousand  families  in  these  three  small 
districts  of  Chicago,  crowded  in  these  narrow  quarters,  how  many 
are  there  in  the  entire  city?  One  day  the  writer  visited  the 
family  of  a  man  who  had  been  prostrated  by  heat  while  at  work 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  63 

with  the  street-paving  gang.  They  were  a  family  of  seven,  living 
in  a  two-room  apartment  of  a  rear  tenement.  The  day  was  in 
August,  and  the  sun  beat  down  upon  one  unintermittently  and 
without  mercy.  The  husband  had  been  brought  home  a  few  hours 
before,  and  the  wife,  in  a  distracted  but  skilful  way,  found  path- 
ways among  the  clamoring  children.  The  air  was  steamy  with  a 
half-finished  washing,  and  remnants  of  the  last  meal  were  still 
upon  the  table.  A  crying  baby  and  the  sick  husband  occupied  the 
only  bed.  The  writer  had  known  before  of  five  people  sleeping  in 
one  bed,  so  he  supposed  the  father  and  oldest  child  usually  slept 
on  the  floor.  As  he  watched  the  woman  on  that  day  he  under- 
stood a  little  of  what  it  meant  to  live  in  such  contracted  quarters. 
To  cook  and  wash  for  seven,  to  nurse  a  crying  baby  broken  out 
with  heat,  and  to  care  for  a  delirious  husband,  to  arrange  a  pos- 
sible sleeping-place  for  seven,  to  do  all  these  things  in  two  rooms 
which  open  upon  an  alley,  tremulous  with  heated  odors  and 
swarming  with  flies  from  the  garbage  and  manure  boxes,  was 
something  to  tax  the  patience  and  strength  of  a  Titan. 


64 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


In  the  light  of  the  aforegoing  studies,  showing  the  small 
apartments  and  few  rooms  for  each  family,  the  following  figures 
on  the  number  of  people  in  rooms  and  apartments  will  be  sig- 
nificant of  overcrowding: 


District. 

Average  No.  Persons 
per  Room. 

Average  No.  Persons 
per  Apartment. 

Front. 

Rear. 

Both. 

Front. 

Rear. 

Both. 

District    i 

1.24 

1-35 

1.2 

1.36 
1-34 

1-47 

1.26 

1-35 
1.22 

4.8 
5-i 
4-5 

4-4 
4.8 

4-3 

4.8 
5.09 
4-53 

District   2 

District   3 

Totals 

1.23 

1.36 

1.28 

4.8 

4-5 

4.8 

The  average  number  of  persons  per  room,  which  includes  all 
rooms  and  not  simply  bedrooms,  it  will  be  seen,  is  1.28.  The 
average  runs  considerably  above  this  in  the  Polish  district. 
In  the  rear  houses  the  crowding  is  greater  in  Districts  i  and  3, 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  65 

but  less  in  District  2.  The  average  number  of  persons  per  apart- 
ment is  larger  in  the  front  houses  than  it  is  in  the  rear  houses. 
But  the  floor  space  in  the  rear  tenements  averages  less  per  apart- 
ment than  the  floor  space  in  the  front  houses,  consequently  the 
overcrowding  is  greater  in  the  rear  dwellings.  That  the  crowd- 
ing is  greater  in  the  Polish  district  than  it  is  in  the  Italian  and 
Jewish  districts  is  shown  by  the  large  average  number  of  persons 
per  apartment.  An  average  of  over  one  person  per  room  for 
every  room  in  three  districts  of  considerable  size  is  evidence  of 
a  very  close  crowding  of  population.  It  shows  that  if  the  whole 
population,  with  a  density  in  certain  places  of  four  hundred 
persons  per  acre,  were  equally  distributed  throughout  the  entire 
36,031  rooms  in  the  three  districts,  every  room  would  shelter 
more  than  one  person,  and  every  single  apartment,  large  and 
small,  would  contain  nearly  five  persons. 

But  averages  are  deceiving,  and  in  some  parts  of  the  district 
there  are  houses  in  which  every  room  is  crowded,  and  in  other 
parts  houses  only  sparsely  populated.  The  following  table  and 
diagram  shows  an  examination  of  1,114  occupied  apartments  in 
six  different  blocks,  classified  according  to  the  number  of  persons 
per  room: 


APARTMENTS     WITH     CRAMPED     LIVING     QUARTERS     IN     SIX 
SELECTED   BLOCKS  * 


With  2  to 

With  2.5  or 

Total  No. 

Per  Cent  of 

Block. 

Occupied 
Apart- 

With 1.5  to 
1.9  Persons 

2.49  Per- 
sons 

More  Per- 
sons 

of  Apart- 
ments, 

All  Apart- 
ments, 

ments. 

per  Room. 

per   Room. 

per  Room. 

Cramped. 

Cramped. 

No.  16 

64 

13 

10 

4 

27 

42 

No.  21 

155 

23 

23 

7 

53 

35 

No.  51 

316 

72 

58 

14 

144 

45 

No.  53 

I87 

33 

26 

25 

84 

45 

No.  60 

2I9 

42 

32 

37 

HI 

5° 

No.  62 

173 

3i 

16 

19 

66 

38 

Totals  -     - 

1,114 

214 

165 

1  06 

485 

43-5 

Percentage  - 

IOO 

19.2 

14.8 

9-5 

43-5 

43-5 

*  The  apartment  includes  all  rooms  except  closets  and  pantries. 


66 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


CRAMPED   LIVING  QUARTERS 

Distribution  of  apartments  in  six  selected  blocks  into  four 
classes  according  to  number  of  persons  per  room.  Total  num- 
ber of  apartments  is  1,114. 


56.5  per  cent. 


19.2        14.8 
per  cent,  per  cent. 


9.5  per  cent. 


Average  number       Less  than 
of  persons  per  1.5 

room 


to 
1.99 


2. 

to 
2.49 


and 


This  table  shows  that  43.5  per  cent,  that  is  to  say,  485  apart- 
ments, have  more  than  three  persons  in  every  two  rooms ;  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  or  one-fourth  of  all  the  apartments,  were  so  crowded 
that  two  persons  were  compelled  to  occupy  every  single  room, 
living-rooms  and  bedrooms  alike.  This  table  and  the  diagram 
further  shows  that  about  (9.5  per  cent)  one  apartment  in  every 
ten  was  fearfully  crowded,  and  that  often  more  than  three  people 
were  crowded  in  every  room  of  each  apartment.  The  following 
examples  are  a  few  of  the  cases  of  overcrowding  commented  upon 
by  the  enumerators: 


Street. 

Rooms. 

Persons. 

Adults. 

Children. 

Taylor 

•3 

A 

5 

Taylor 

2 

1  1 

"3 

8 

Dekoven             -   - 

2 

8 

•3     • 

e 

Dekoven 

2 

8 

•3 

e 

Dekoven  - 

2 

8 

2 

i 

Bunker 

2 

8 

•3 

e 

Bunker 

-i 

1  1 

2 

Thirteenth 

2 

6 

Thirteenth  -             --  - 

l 

Liberty                       

4. 

12 

e 

7 

Fourteenth 

•3 

II 

Holt 

2 

6 

-3 

3 

Holt 

2 

7 

A 

Holt 

2 

e 

2 

Holt  -     .-- 

2 

o 

2 

7 

Holt               

2 

6 

2 

4 

Noble 

0 

10 

2 

8 

TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  67 

Some  of  the  comments  on  these  and  other  cases  are: 

Dekoven.  Case  of  eight  persons  in  two  rooms,  Polish.  "  The 
woman  says  four  sleep  in  the  kitchen  and  four  in  the  bedroom.'' 

Cleaver.  "Two  double  beds  and  crib  in  bedroom  10  by  8, 
with  one  window  opening  on  passage  one  and  one-half  feet  wide.  " 

Holt.  "Thirteen  persons  in  four  rooms,  two  of  them  bed- 
rooms 6  by  8.  Family  consisted  of  father  and  mother,  three 
grown  children  and  eight  others. 

Holt.  "Old  residents  say  families  keep  boarders  in  winter. 
A  family  of  five,  two  adults  and  three  children,  living  in  four 
small  rooms  near,  take  as  high  as  seven  boarders  and  roomers  in 
winter,  making  nine  adults  and  three  children  in  four  rooms." 

The  following  photographs  are  two  excellent  examples  of 
tenements  badly  overcrowded.  The  first  is  a  rear  court  sur- 
rounded by  four-story  houses.  The  cellar  in  the  middle  of  the 
picture  looks  as  it  really  is,  dark  and  unwholesome.  One  family 
with  five  children  live  in  it.  The  crowds  of  children  which  call 
these  barracks  home  have  only  this  low,  damp  court  to  play  in. 
It  is  five  feet  below  the  level  of  the  street,  and  is  not  drained. 
The  tenement  directly  in  the  middle  has  thirty-seven  people  in 
five  apartments.  The  house  at  the  right  has  a  stable  in  the  base- 
ment story.  Its  manure  box  is  used  for  garbage.  When  the 
enumerator  passed  it  was  full  and  weeds  were  growing  in  it. 
There  are  no  fire-escapes  on  the  houses  and  the  lives  of  the  large 
population  would  be  in  great  danger  in  case  of  fire. 

The  second  photograph  shows  a  passageway  between  three 
tenements,  two  large  brick  tenements  on  the  front  of  the  lot  and 
one  large  frame  tenement  on  the  rear.  Almost  every  inch  of  the 
two  lots  is  Covered  by  buildings.  The  little  group  of  tenements, 
of  which  these  are  three,  house  forty-four  families,  altogether 
182  individuals.  The  lower  rooms  never  receive  sunlight,  and 
are  consequently  dark  and  unwholesome. 

THE  SACRIFICE  OF  DECENCY,  HEALTH  AND  MORALS  IN  OVER- 
CROWDED  APARTMENTS 

Section  6.  To  understand  the  full  value  of  the  figures  given 
in  this  chapter,  it  will  be  necessary  to  explain  to  the  general  pub- 
lic what  overcrowding  really  means  to  the  working  people.  A 


A   "BACK    YARD" 


HOUSES  COVERING  ALL  OF  LOT 


70  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

little  imagination  will  show  you  how  difficult  or  impossible  deli- 
cacy or  decency  is  in  such  narrow  quarters.  Note  what  the 
Polish  woman  on  Dekoven  Street  says,  and  the  t'wo  comments  on 
the  Holt  Street  tenements.  These  conditions  present  grave 
dilemmas  to  these  poor  people  who  try  to  reduce  their  rent  by 
overcrowding  a  few  rooms.  If  the  doors  are  closed  between 
bedrooms,  which  is  desirable  when  boarders  are  taken,  three  or 


more  people  will  be  crowded  in  a  bedroom  with  not  enough  air- 
space for  one  human  being.  This  is  decency  at  the  high  price 
of  health.  Many  times  the  kitchen  is  used  as  a  bedroom.  But 
as  Mr.  George  Haw  says*  in  "No  Room  to  Live":  "Thousands 
of  families  try  to  make  their  overcrowded  living  as  decent  as 
possible  for  the  children's  sake.  They  avoid  sleeping  in  the 
living-room  as  far  as  they  can,  so  that  the  son  of  twenty,  who 
leaves  home  for  the  factory  at  eight,  can  have  his  breakfast  apart 
from  the  room  where  the  daughter  of  eighteen  is  dressing  to 
*  See  page  IQ. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  71 

begin  her  work  in  the  warehouse  at  nine."  The  late  Lord 
Shaftsbury,  speaking  of  the  influence  of  indecent  overcrowding, 
especially  among  children,  said  before  the  Lords'  Committee:* 
"It  is  .totally  destructive  of  all  benefit  from  education.  It  is  a 
benefit  for  the  children  to  be  absent  during  the  day  at  school, 
but  when  they  return  to  their  houses,  in  one  hour  they  unlearn 
everything  they  have  acquired  during  the  day."  A  probationary 
officer  of  the  Juvenile  Court  recently  said  that  almost  all  of  her 
children  lived  in  overcrowded  rear  tenements. 

The  moral  influences  set  in  motion  by  the  necessity,  in  over- 
crowded quarters,  of  disregarding  decency  and  forgetting  sex  are 
not  the  only  evil  results  of  overcrowding.  Because  of  it  the  health 
of  tenement-house  people  is  in  constant  danger.  Unconsciously 
but  irresistibly,  the  physical  demands  of  their  bodies,  which  can- 
not be  satisfied  indoors,  impel  the  people  to  stay  on  the  streets 
as  much  as  possible.  Besides  this,  overcrowded  rooms  are  not 
pleasant.  That  overcrowding  makes  the  houses  unbearable  is 
attested  by  the  crowds  of  men,  women,  and  children  which 
swarm  into  the  streets  on  evenings  when  the  weather  permits. 
The  air,  the  light,  and  the  breathing-space  which  cannot  be  had 
in  their  crowded  tenements  they  get  in  the  streets  at  night.  On 
hot  summer  evenings  the  people  sleep  on  the  streets,  sidewalks, 
and  in  the  yards,  where  there  are  yards.  The  nervousness,  list- 
lessness,  and  wearisome  depression  frequently  noticed  in  the 
people  of  the  tenements  is  largely  due  to  their  overcrowded  sleep- 
ing-rooms. It  is  a  fact  that  the  mass  of  people  in  tenements 
have  not  what  people  commonly  call  a  home.  It  is  a  place  of 
shelter  for  the  sleeping-hours  of  the  night,  and  in  the  hot  weather 
it  is  often  abandoned  even  for  that  purpose. 

THE   DENSITY    IS    INCREASING   IN    CHICAGO 

Section  7.  As  it  is  worth  while  for  Chicago  to  give  some 
consideration  to  the  problem  of  overcrowding  upon  the  ground 
space,  so  it  is  worth  while  for  Chicago  to  consider,  without  delay, 
the  serious  problems  which  result  from  crowding  people  in  tene- 
ments, almost  as  stock  cars  are  crowded  with  cattle.  The  evil 
does  not  stand  still  or  abate;  it  is  steadily  growing,  and  to-day  it 

*  See  Report,  Vol.  II.  page  2. 


73  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

is  worse  than  yesterday.  Nor  are  these  evils  confined  to  these 
small  districts  on  the  West  Side.  These  districts  are  representa- 
tive of  what  exists  throughout  the  entire  river  wards.  Over- 
crowding affects  nearly  three  hundred  thousand  people. 

The  down-town  districts  here  present  problems  similar  to  those 
of  down-town  areas  in  London  and  New  York.  The  Great  Inner 
Belt  in  London  is  where  the  most  serious  housing  problem  in  the 
world  exists,  and  the  crushing  of  the  overcrowded  population  is 
a  terror  to  the  nation.  The  cry  of  the  "no  room  to  live" 
population  to-day  outdoes  in  its  threatening  character  the  "bitter 
cry  of  '84."  There  is  a  mass  of  people  there,  as  here,  who  are 
compelled  to  live  down-town.  The  tailors  must  be  near  the  work 
which  is  given  out  on  Fifth  Avenue,*  The  common  laborers, 
whose  work  shifts  from  one  extreme  of  the  city  to  another,  must 
live  near  the  center  of  their  working  circle.  Peddlers  must  live 
in  close  proximity  to  their  base  of  supplies  in  order  to  reach,  in 
the  early  hours,  the  districts  where  their  wares  can  be  sold. 
People  who  own  stands  and  small  stores  must  live  in  or  near 
their  places  of  business.  Where  several  members  of  the  family 
work  down-town,  transit  costs  are  saved  by  living  near  their  work. 
The  natural  gregariousness  of  people  belonging  to  the  same 
nationality  establishes  colonies  of  working  people  in  the  inner 
circles  of  large  cities,  -j-  In  Chicago  there  are  a  Bohemian,  an 
Irish,  a  Jewish,  a  German,  a  Negro,  a  Chinese,  a  Greek,  a  Scan- 
dinavian, two  Polish,  and  four  Italian  colonies  in  the  central  part 
of  the  city.  The  dreariness  of  suburban  life  and  the  pleasures  of 
certain  excitements  in  the  down-town  districts  draw  to  it  certain 
classes.  Back  of  all  this,  the  temporary  low  rentals  of  the  poorly 
constructed  tenement-houses  attract,  at  first,  the  colonies,  and 
the  mass  of  unskilled  workers.  But  the  experience  of  every  older 
city  has  gone  to  prove  that  this  advantage  is  ephemeral,  and  rents 
increase  with  the  overcrowding,  until  the  combination  is  reached  of 
exorbitant  rents  for  miserable  and  overcrowded  accommodations. 
Chicago  is  moving  toward  this  goal  seemingly  without  fear. 
Until  within  the  last  few  years,  no  thought  has  been  given  to  the 
housing  problem,  and  now,  in  the  results  shown  here,  are  seen  the 
beginning  of  all  and  the  realization  of  many  of  the  frightful  evils 
depicted  in  the  Report  of  the  Royal  Commision. 

*  See  page  197.  t  See  page  196. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

INSIDE  SANITARY  CONDITIONS 

CAUSES    OF    INSANITARY    CONDITIONS    IN    HOUSES 

Section  i.  The  chief  insanitary  conditions  in  houses  are 
darkness,  lack  of  air,  uncleanliness,  and  poisonous  gases.  Upon 
the  construction  of  houses  and  their  relation  to  one  another  on 
the  ground  space  depend  the  inside  insanitary  conditions  of 
darkness  and  lack  of  ventilation.  Uncleanliness,  outside  of 
the  house,  depends  upon  the  law  concerning  cleaning  and  its 
enforcement.  As  an  inside  condition,  it  depends  greatly  upon 
the  crowding  of  people  allowed  in  the  apartments,  and  then  upon 
the  individual  caretaker  of  the  apartment.  The  lighting  of  the 
apartment  affects  the  question  seriously,  since  the  problems  of 
cleaning  a  light  room  and  a  dark  room  are  materially  different. 
The  condition  of  the  air  as  affected  by  poisons  from  sewer  gas, 
uncollected  garbage,  etc.,  is  entirely  dependent  upon  the  law  con- 
cerning these  matters  and  its  enforcement,  although  overcrowd- 
ing in  apartments  also  vitiates  the  air.  But  the  overcrowding  of 
houses  upon  the  lots  and  blocks  dealt  with  in  Chapter  II,  is  the 
most  important  cause  of  insanitary  conditions. 

Musty,  fetid  rooms,  which  cannot  be  ventilated  because  of 
brick  walls  overshadowing  the  windows,  inevitably  accumulate 
in  their  dark  corners  dirt,  mold,  and  vermin.  Emanations  from 
the  body  and  foul  air  in  dwelling  and  sleeping  rooms  have  no 
outlet  except  by  through  ventilation.  The  overcrowding  in 
rooms  shown  in  Chapter  III,  moreover,  complicates  all  difficulties 
of  bad  building  and  construction,  and  doubles  the  cost  to  the 
tenants  of  dark,  unclean,  and  badly  ventilated  rooms.  The 
limited  amount  of  cubic  air-space  for  each  individual  caused  by 
overcrowding  has  been  known  to  suffocate  children.*  The  miser- 
able construction  and  ill-repair  of  many  tenement-houses  cause 

*See   report  of   inquest  in  Dr.  Bowmaker's  Housing   of  the  Working 
Classes,  page   13. 

73 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  75 

damp  and  unwholesome  dwelling-places  which  are  obviously  unfit 
for  human  beings  to  dwell  in.  Basements  and  cellars  are 
inhabited,  and  in  some  of  them  all  of  the  most  serious  inside 
insanitary  conditions  are  found.  The  construction  of  a  house, 
the  relation  of  one  house  to  its  neighbors,  the  size  and  height 
and  length,  decide  largely  the  inside  insanitary  conditions. 

Originally,  the  small  old-fashioned  frame  cottages  had  ex- 
cellent light  and  ventilation.  Even  the  old  ones  with  certain 
other  insanitary  conditions  cannot  be  criticised  on  these  grounds, 
but  occasionally  even  these  small  houses  will  be  partitioned  off 
for  the  use  of  two  or  more  families,  and  in  such  instances  it 
sometimes  happens  that  a  dark  room  is  made.  More  frequently 
these  small  cottages  are  placed  on  the  rear  of  the  lot  and  a 
large  three  or  four  story  tenement  placed  on  the  front.  The 
small  house  is  then  overshadowed  and  deprived  of  its  sunlight. 
The  photograph  opposite  is  an  illustration  of  this.  The  five 
rear  tenements  in  the  middle  of  the  picture  are  built  to  the  rear 
line  of  the  lots  at  the  right.  That  there  is  perhaps  sufficient  light 
now  depends  upon  the  fact  that  the  lots  at  the  left  are  only  par- 
tially built  upon,  and  that  there  are  three  large  vacant  lots  adjoin- 
ing. The  low  square  brick  house  is  occupied  by  two  families  in  four 
rooms.  This  house  is  overshadowed  by  a  large  brick  front  house 
in  which  thirty  people  live  in  three  apartments.  The  two-story 
rear  frame  house  is  back  of  a  large  four-story  tenement.  The 
next  rear  tenement  is  a  three-story  brick  house  at  the  rear  of  a 
front  house  of  three  stories.  This  lot  is  covered  seventy  per  cent 
and  the  court  between  the  two  houses  is  dark  and  wet.  The 
lower  rooms  adjoining  have  insufficient  light.  The  next  rear 
tenement  is  a  house  of  one  story  entirely  surrounded  on  three 
sides  by  tall  buildings.  A  baker  occupies  the  basement  and  a 
family  the  first  floor.  This  house  is  a  good  example  of  a  small 
cottage  overshadowed  by  surrounding  houses  which  cut  off  its 
light  and  air.  Its  chimney  has  been  lengthened  to  reach  out  of 
the  well  into  the  freer  air. 

The  large  brick  tenement  in  the  next  photograph  is  a  good 
example  of  a  dumb-bell.  It  is  practically  a  front  and  rear  house 
joined  together,  covering  the  whole  lot.  The  houses  on  both 
sides  by  its  erection  have  been  robbed  of  light  and  air.  Most 
of  the  recent  tenement-house  construction  is  of  this  character. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


77 


From  this  study  of  the  construction  of  buildings  and  the  amount 
of  lot  covered  it  is  seen  how  often  insanitary  conditions  are 
caused  by  the  evils  of  overcrowded  lot  areas. 

A  STUDY    OF   APARTMENTS    WITH    DEFECTIVE    LIGHTING   AND 

VENTILATION 

Section  2.  These  photographs  show  various  methods  of  build- 
ing which  are  harmful.  But  it  will  be  necessary  to  follow  the 
tables  and  diagrams  if  an  exact  idea  is  desired  of  the  worst  con- 
ditions. These  facts  were  not  obtained  in  the  general  investi- 
gation, but  were  the  result  of  a  special  study  into  the  inside 
conditions  of  light  and  ventilation.  This  inquiry  included  in  its 
scope  1,961  rooms,  which  were  not  selected  solely  because  they 
were  considered  the  worst  examples  of  bad  lighting. 

CLASSIFICATION    OF    ROOMS    IN   APARTMENTS  HAVING    INSUF- 
FICIENT  LIGHT 

(Special  Investigation.) 


o 

Rooms  with  Bad  Lighting. 

.  w-0 

0  E~ 

tfl   . 

c 

.^ 

u 

c 

x 

c 

Location  of  Rooms. 

1«§ 
o     oi 

o'Q 

0) 

U 

<u 

M 

Q 
o 

U 

u 

ll 

0) 

U 

01 

Totals. 

H 

* 

M 

Z 

PH 

O 

P-i 

Block   15 

CO2 

,o 

6 

1^1 

26 

f 

189 

2<;6 

CO.Q 

Block  34 

I 

OI 

81 

16 

188 

31  6 

27O 

4.7.7 

Selected  houses  in  Dist.  i- 

5°5 

34 

6.7 

207 

2Q 

27O 

Selected  houses  in  Dist.  2- 
Selected  houses  in  Dist.  3. 

201 

1  66 

79 
79 

39-8 

47-5 

20 
3 

10 
1.8 

i 

49-8 
52.9 

6 

3-6 

Totals       _     ... 

1,961 

7i 

3-6 

577 

29.2 

335 

17.1 

983 

49.9 

Location  of  Rooms. 

No.  of  Rooms 
with  Window 
Space  Less  Than 
1-10  of  Floor  Area. 

Windows  not  Supplying  Good  Venti- 
lation. 

No.  on  Narrow 
Courts, 
Six  Feet  or  Less. 

No.  on  Other 
Rooms. 

Block  15 

92 
I 
41 
3 
15 

169 

359 
118 

7' 
56 

U3 
152 
227 
42 

3° 

Block  34      -         

Selected  houses  in  Dist.  i- 
Selected  houses  in  Dist.  2- 
Selected  houses  in  Dist.  3. 

Totals 

152 

773 

564 

78  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

1,961    ROOMS    SPECIALLY    EXAMINED    AND    CLASSIFIED 
ACCORDING    TO    GRADE    OF    LIGHTING 

.  3.6 

17.1     29.2    per 
50.1  per  cent.   per  cent,  per  cent.  cent. 


Light  Dark 

Gloomy  Very  Dark 

The  first  table  gives  the  classification  of  983  rooms,  or  49.9 
per  cent  of  all  rooms  as  they  were  found  to  be  either  very  dark, 
dark,  or  gloomy.  The  second  table  gives  the  number  of  rooms 
existing  in  violation  of  the  Chicago  ordinance  requiring  every 
room  to  have  window  space  equal  to  at  least  one-tenth  of  its  floor 
area.*  The  second  part  of  this  table  gives  the  number  of  win- 
dows of  small  use  for  the  purpose  either  of  lighting  or  ventilating 
rooms. 

The  diagram  shows  that  the  rooms  classified  as  having  insuffi- 
cient light  are  about  half  of  all  rooms  investigated.  It  also 
shows  by  its  shading  what  is  meant  by  the  terms  gloomy,  dark, 
and  very  dark.  The  first  part  of  the  table,  of  which  the  diagram  is 
explanatory,  shows  that  49.9  per  cent  of  all  rooms  are  badly 
lighted.  Block  34,  in  district  one,  is  an  exception,  but  even 
here  47.7  per  cent  of  all  rooms  are  dark.  As  the  apartments 
selected  are  fairly  representative  of  conditions  in  several  different 
places  in  the  three  districts,  the  total  percentage  of  49.9  per  cent 
could  perhaps  be  applied  with  fairness  to  most  tenement-house 
districts  in  this  city. 

The  number  of  badly  lighted  rooms  in  Chicago's  tenement- 
house  districts  would  be  enormous  if  an  estimate  were  made  on 
this  basis.  In  these  districts  alone  about  eighteen  thousand 
rooms  would  be  either  very  dark,  dark,  or  gloomy,  and  about 
twenty-two  thousand  five  hundred  people  would  live  in  rooms  in  a 
more  or  less  unhealthful  condition.  The  showing  is  amazing,  and 
there  is  sufficient  reason  for  alarm.  If  these  figures  were  based 
upon  the  casual  observation  of  an  unskilled  and  hurried  enumer- 
ator they  could  hardly  be  accounted  trustworthy.  But  they  are 

*  City  Ordinances,  1934,  sec.  1371. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


79 


based  upon  measurements  of  floor  areas,  of  windows,  and  a  study 
of  their  sources  of  light,  and  every  statement  can  be  reinforced 
by  a  great  body  of  facts. 

The  table  shows  some  striking  things  in  Block  15.  More 
than  half  the  rooms  are  badly  lighted.  One-third  of  the  rooms 
have  conditions  which  are  designated  as  either  dark  or  very  dark, 
161  rooms  are  considered  not  fit  for  people  to  live  in.  As  is 
shown  in  the  lower  part  of  the  table,  113  windows  open  upon 
other  rooms  and  not  to  the  outer  air;  169  windows  open  upon 
narrow  courts;  92  rooms  have  windows  too  small  to  furnish  suffi- 
cient light.  The  sunless  bedrooms  are  crowded  to  the  point  of 
suffocation;  41.9  percent  of  the  people  have  less  than  250  cubic 
feet  of  air-space  per  occupant,*  which  is  150  cubic  feet  less  than 
is  required  by  State  law  for  each  homeless  and  vagrant  man  in 
the  down-town  lodging-houses.  There  are  412  persons  to  the 
acre  in  this  block;  over  122  persons  live  in  alley  homes;  52  per- 
sons live  in  basements,  and  the  worst  of  many  bad  conditions 
reach  a  climax  here,  for  not  only  are  the  inside  conditions  of 
light  and  ventilation  most  reprehensible,  but  the  serious  over- 
crowding of  population  also  complicates  and  intensifies  the  evils 
of  sanitary  defects. 

The  following  table  is  a  careful  examination  of  lighting  in  this 
block.  A  graphic  representation  of  the  table  is  also  given  in  the 
diagram. 

LIGHTING    OF   APARTMENTS    IN    BLOCK    15 


Location. 

Total  No. 
of  Rooms. 

Dark  and 
Very  Dark. 

Percentage 
of  All. 

No. 
Gloomy. 

Percentage 
of  All. 

Basement 

?6 

VJ 

66 

8 

11  2 

First  inhabited  floor  (in- 

cluding basement) 

i=;6 

7O 

w 

"U 

21  1 

Second  inhabited  floor.  .. 

190 

40 

21 

50 

f  ° 
26.3 

Third  inhabited  floor  

102 

16 

15-7 

14 

I3.8 

Fourth  inhabited  floor- 

7 

2 

28.6 

2 

28.6 

Fifth  inhabited  floor  

7 

I 

14.2 

3 

42.8 

Totals      - 

462 

138 

30 

103 

22 

This  table  shows  not  only  the  total  number  and  percentage 
of  rooms  badly  lighted,  but  also  the  number  and  percentage  of 
*See  page  87. 


8o  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

rooms  in  the  various  stories  which  receive  insufficient  light.  In 
the  basement  the  conditions  seem  to  be  extremely  bad.  Sixty- 
six  per  cent  of  all  rooms  have  insufficient  light.  Half  of  the 
rooms  in  the  first  story,  which  include  all  basements,  suffer  the 
worst  conditions.  Thirty  per  cent  of  all  rooms  in  the  block  have 
conditions  which  should  not  be  permitted  by  sanitary  laws. 

To  further  illustrate  defective  lighting,  the  following  dia- 
grams showing  the  lighting  of  all  apartments  in  the  first  and 
second  stories  of  this  entire  block  are  given. 

In  looking  over  the  diagram  it  will  be  seen  that  seventy-nine 
rooms  are  either  dark  or  pitch  black.  The  latter  should  be  abol- 
ished by  the  Department  of  Health,  as  almost  every  one  exists  in 
violation  of  the  city  ordinances.  At  the  left  of  the  diagram  you 
will  see  at  figures  28,  29,  and  30  ten  rooms  marked  black.  Two 
of  these  are  bedrooms  without  any  openings  to  the  outside  air; 
eight  of  the  rooms  get  their  entire  light  and  ventilation  from  air- 
shafts  measuring  4  by  4  feet.  The  building  occupying  three  lots 
covers  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  entire  ground  space.  Another 
instance  of  rooms — bedrooms,  more's  the  pity — without  light  and 
ventilation  is  at  No.  22.  The  rooms  open  upon  a  passageway 
one  foot  and  a  half  wide.  Three  children  under  five  years  of 
age  sleep  in  these  rooms,  where  there  is  never  any  daylight. 
They  are  always  foul  and  fetid,  and  it  is  hard  to  understand 
how  people,  and  especially  babies,  live  at  all  in  such  condi- 
tions. 

A  glaring  instance  of  the  possibility  of  fearful  results  under 
the  existing  building  regulations  is  to  be  seen  in  Lots  2,  3,  and  4. 
The  owners  of  Lots  2  and  4  built  up  their  property  with  tenements 
to  within  three  inches  of  their  lot  boundaries,  perhaps  trusting 
to  chance  that  the  owner  of  Lot  3  would  be  compelled  to  leave 
sufficient  space  for  lighting  and  ventilating  any  building  he  might 
put  up,  and  that  they  could  in  this  way  impose  on  him  to  furnish 
them  with  light  and  ventilation.  However,  as  it  turned  out, 
Lot  3  was  built  up  almost  solidly  to  its  lot  line  by  a  building 
having  no  need  for  windows  on  the  sides,  and  so  covered  the 
windows  of  the  adjoining  buildings.  In  these  tenements  sixty- 
one  people  live.  On  the  second  floor  of  one  house  sweat-shop 
workers  toil  in  darkness  over  their  tasks,  being  deprived  of  any 
chance  of  light  and  air.  Until  the  law  requires  that  only  a  defi- 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  83 

nite  percentage  of  the  lot  shall  be  covered  by  tenement  buildings, 
such  a'case  as  this  can  be  repeated  at  any  time. 

The  second  floor  apartments  are  shown  in  the  diagram  opposite: 
While  these  apartments  are  much  better  lighted,  there  is  even 
on  this  floor  a  considerable  number  of  rooms  to  be  classed  as 
unfit  for  human  habitation  because  of  defective  lighting  and 
ventilation.  The  influence  of  the  high  buildings  is  still  evident. 
The  following  diagrams  show  the  lighting  in  certain  apart- 
ments covered  by  the  investigation.  The  diagram  at  the  lower 
left-hand  corner  shows  a  common  type  of  dwelling-house  in  the 
Polish  quarter.  The  rooms  opening  on  the  small  shafts,  2^  by 
6  ,feet,  receive  almost  no  light.  The  middle  diagram  at  the 
top  is  a  long  three-story  tenement  with  a  basement.  The  rooms 
in  the  front  part  of  the  house  are  all  dark  because  overshadowed 
by  the  adjoining  houses.  It  is  a  type  of  dwelling  becoming  more 
and  more  common  in  the  Polish  district.  It  is  one  of  the  worst 
forms  of  tenements,  and  has  been  described  before.* 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  AIR-SPACES  IN  OVERCROWDED  APARTMENTS 

Section  3.  Even  under  favorable  circumstances,  badly  lighted 
rooms  which  cannot  be  well  ventilated  are  not  fit  to  live  in. 
But  when  such  rooms  are  overcrowded  the  air  becomes  poison- 
ous. No  chemical  tests  were  made  of  the  air  found  in  over- 
crowded apartments,  nor  was  any  effort  made  to  collect  disease 
germs.  The  purpose  of  our  special  inquiry  was  to  determine 
how  many  cubic  feet  of  air-space  each  individual  had.  There 
are  many  well-authorized  standards  by  which  we  may  determine 
how  much  living  and  sleeping  space  is  needed  by  every  human 
being.  Professor  Huxley,  the  eminent  scientist,  once  a  medical 
officer  in  East  London,  says  809  cubic  feet  of  space  is  desirable,  j* 
A  recent  law  gives  the  Illinois  State  Board  of  Health  power  to 
compel  lodging-house  keepers  to  give  each  lodger  four  hundred 
cubic  feet  of  space. J  In  the  light  of  these  statements,  judge  of 
the  frightful  conditions  in  which  the  following  people  live: 

*  See  photographs,  pages  44,  45. 

j1  Worthington's  "Dwellings  of  the  People,"  page  103. 

George  Haw's  "No  Room  to  Live,"  page  18. 
J  Revised  Statutes  of  Illinois,  1809,  Chapter  I26A,  sec.  16. 


PASSAGE  TO  REAR  TENEMENTS 


86 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


Street. 

No.  of 
Persons. 

No.  of 
Rooms. 

Cu.  Ft.  per 
Person. 
All  Rooms. 

Cu.Ft.  per 
Person,  Sleep- 
ing-Rooms. 

Taylor 

10 

•j 

2?6 

I7Q 

Jefferson 

7 

1 

•3Q1 

2;6 

Jefferson 

•3 

•324 

24.  C 

Jefferson 

g 

•I 

^O 

1  80 

Jefferson 

A 

2 

J? 

i;6o 

US 

Dekoven 

C 

•l 

1  68 

Uc 

Dekoven  -- 

Q 

7 

•\Q2 

128 

Dekoven 

8 

1 

•3.12 

112 

Taylor 

Q 

•i 

221 

81 

Dekoven 

6 

2 

266 

1  06 

Dekoven  

10 

•J 

•JC2 

64 

Dekoven 

8 

2 

?IQ 

112 

The  above  examples  were  chosen  out  of  many,  and  represent 
but  a  few  of  the  worst  cases  found.  Some  of  these  families  are 
not  only  painfully  crowded,  but  in  several  of  the  cases  mentioned 
above  one  or  two  of  the  rooms  in  each  apartment  are  dark. 
The  eight  people  on  Jefferson  Street  have  three  rooms,  two  of 
which  are  dark.  The  family  of  nine  on  Dekoven  Street  also  live 
in  three  rooms,  two  of  which  are  dark.  Here  are  found  together 
the  evils  of  dark  rooms  without  ventilation  and  a  bad  state  of 
overcrowding. 

The  following  table  and  diagram  give  the  total  results  of  this 
investigation: 

CLASSIFICATION  ACCORDING  TO  THE  AMOUNT   OF  CUBIC  AIR- 
SPACE   PER    PERSON    IN    APARTMENTS    SPECIALLY 
INVESTIGATED 


No.  of  Apartments  with  Cubic  Air-Space  per 
Person. 


Under  400. 

400  to  699. 

Over  700. 

Totals. 

Block  15 

lo 

t"t 

76 

148 

Part  of  Block  34 

o 

12 

i^, 
•\f\ 

77 

Selected  houses  in 

District  I 

64 

71 

41 

176 

Selected  houses  in 

District  2 

6 

16 

22 

44 

Selected  houses  in 

District  3 

8 

17 

16 

41 

Totals 
Percentages 

- 

106 

22 

189 

39 

191 

39 

486 
IOO 

TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


87 


Location  of  Apartments. 

No  of  Sleeping  Apartments  with  Cubic 
Air-Space  per  Person. 

Total. 

Under 

250. 

250  to 
399- 

400  to 

699. 

Over 

700. 

Block  15 

57 
33 
94 
25 
25 

28 
29 
53 
ii 

13 

31 
27 

23 
7 
3 

20 
I 

6 

i 

I36 
90 
I76 

44 
41 

Part  of  Block  34 

Selected  houses  in  District  i  
Selected  houses  in  District  2  
Selected  houses  in  District  3  

Total 
Percentages 

234 

48 

134 

27-5 

Qi 
18.6 

28 

5-7 

487 

IOO 

CLASSIFICATION   ACCORDING  TO   CUBIC  AIR-SPACE  PER  OCCU- 
PANT  IN    THE   APARTMENTS    SPECIALLY    INVESTIGATED 


Under 
400. 


Under 
250. 


700  and 
400-699.  over. 


250-  400-  700  and 

399.  699.     over. 


•        Entire 
Apartment. 


Sleeping 
Rooms. 


The  first  table  includes  all  rooms  in  the  apartments  except 
pantries  and  closets.  It  assumes  that  ail  doors  are  thrown  open 
at  night  so  that  the  apartment  is  a  unit  of  air-space.  Upon  this 
assumption  each  individual  in  twenty-two  per  cent  of  the  apart- 
ments had  less  than  four  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air-space.  In 
over  sixty-one  per  cent  of  all  apartments,  each  individual  had 
less  than  Professor  Huxley's  standard,  which  it  will  be  remem- 
bered was  809  cubic  feet  of  air-space  per  person.  The  second 
table  gives  the  cubic  feet  of  air-space  per  occupant  in  sleeping- 
rooms  only.  The  figures  show  that  over  ninety-four  per  cent  of 
all  apartments  have  less  than  seven  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air- 
space per  person.  As  will  be  seen,  three-fourths  of  all  apart- 
ments have  less  than  four  hundred  cubic  feet  per  occupant. 
Applying  these  figures  to  all  the  apartments  in  the  three  districts, 
it  is  estimated  that  in  the  sleeping-rooms  of  over  7,392  of  the 


88  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

9,859  apartments  there  is  less  than  four  hundred  cubic  feet  of 
air-space  per  occupant,  or  less  than  the  Illinois  lodging-house 
law  provides.  To  realize  how  small  the  quarters  are  in  which 
forty-eight  per  cent  of  the  people  live,  let  the  reader  measure  on 
the  floor  two  paces  at  right  angles,  and  imagine  himself  sleeping 
in  that  amount  of  walled  space.  The  average  space  accorded  to 
each  individual  is  a  little  over  two  yards  square. 

These  figures  are  as  astonishing  as  those  previously  considered 
in  reference  to  dark  rooms.  Dark  rooms  are  the  ones  commonly 
most  overcrowded.  The  very  poorest,  who  cannot  afford  the  cost 
of  well-lighted  rooms,  accept,  at  a  money  saving,  the  dark  insani- 
tary ones.  Wretchedly  clad  and  poorly  nourished,  fortunate  if 
they  have  a  basket  of  slate  coal,  they  crowd  together  to  economize 
the  warmth  which  their  bodies  give  out.  They  dare  not  open  a 
window  for  ventilation,  and  consequently  they  breathe  again  and 
again  into  their  sickly  bodies  the  poisoned  air  and  filthy  emana- 
tions which  nature  tries  to  throw  off. 


CELLAR    AND    BASEMENT    DWELLINGS 

Section  4.  Cellar  and  basement  dwellings  are  classified  under 
inside  insanitary  conditions  partly  because  they  are  mostly  with- 
out sufficient  light  and  with  difficulty  admit  of  ventilation,  and 
partly  because  of  dampness  and  odors  from  neighboring  closets, 
privies,  and  other  insanitary  conditions.  They  have  all  the  evils 
of  rear  tenements  with  several  serious  ones  added.  Indeed, 
many  basements  are  a  part  of  rear  houses.  Two  hundred  and 
forty-one  persons  in  the  three  districts  investigated  lived  in  the 
basements  of  rear  houses.  In  the  basements  examined  the  floors 
were  mostly  of  wood  and  were  rarely  water-tight.  They  were 
not  properly  cemented  at  the  sides  or  under  the  floors.  The 
water  and  sewage  from  the  neighboring  yards  drained  under 
the  floors  and  around  the  walls.  Often  where  the  land  is  low  the 
sewage  backs  up  in  the  sewer  for  days  at  a  time,  and  menaces 
the  health  of  the  people  in  the  underground  homes.  Very  often 
(173  cases  were  found),  against  all  rules  of  sanitation,  water- 
closets  not  open  to  the  outer  air — that  is  to  say,  ventilated  into 
the  house — were  placed  in  the  basement  and  endangered  the  health 
of  the  people  who  had  to  live  in  the  rooms  adjoining.  There  is 


BASEMENT  WINDOWS 


9°  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

usually  no  ventilation  to  carry- off  the  odors;  and  the  rooms  made 
unwholesome  by  these  insanitary  conditions  often  cannot  be 
reached  by  the  sun,  which  might  dry  out  the  floors  and  walls, 
and  drive  away  the  vermin.  Filth  accumulates  undiscovered  in 
the  dark  corners,  and  rats,  which  overrun  these  neighborhoods 
and  forage  in  the  dark  places,  communicate  disease  and  become 
a  plague  to  the  cellar  and  basement  inhabitants. 

As  this  subject  has  been  frequently  discussed  in  Chicago,  it  is 
needless  to  give  extended  proof  of  the  insanitary  conditions  of 
these  dwellings,  and  the  selected  comments  of  the  enumerators 
introduced  below  should  suffice: 

Throop  Street. — "Water-closet  out  of  order,  sewerage  bad, 
water  has  stood  under  house  for  three  months.  Thirty-three 
people  live  in  the  whole  house,  and  fourteen  in  the  basement. 
Both  families  sick  and  a  child  has  just  died.  Neighbors  also 
are  affected. " 

Fourteenth  Street. — "Seven  people,  two  adults,  five  children, 
in  cellar  of  two  rooms,  dark  and  unfit  for  habitation." 

Noble  Street. — "House  fills  almost  the  width  of  the  lot. 
Cellar  rooms  very  dark  and  apparently  damp.  Three  people  live 
there.  Bad  odor,  probably  from  closets  under  sidewalks." 

Noble  Street. — "Cellar  damp  and  unwholesome.  Three 
people  live  in  it." 

Cleaver  and  Holt  Streets. — "Insanitary  in  periods  of  rain, 
when  water  accumulates  in  the  low  lots  with  basement  dwellings. " 

Polk  Street. — "Living-rooms  in  cellar  all  dark,  very  unwhole- 
some. Three  people  live  there." 

Twelfth  Place. — "Six  people,  two  adults,  four  children,  in 
basement  unfit  for  habitation." 

Twelfth  Place. — "Six  people,  three  adults,  three  children,  in 
low  basement,  which  appeared  to  receive  water  from  the  street. 
Unfit  for  habitation." 

A  few  comments  concerning  cellars  and  basements  not  occu- 
pied or  not  intended  for  occupation  as  dwellings  are  such  impor- 
tant features  of  bad  sanitary  conditions  in  houses  as  to  warrant 
publication: 

Jefferson  Street. — "Cellar  full  of  rubbish  and  filthy." 

Ewing  Street. — "Cellar  wet  and  ill-smelling." 

Ewing  Street. — "Basement  bad.  People  complain  of  bad 
odors." 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


91 


Ewing  Street. — "Unoccupied  cellar  is  damp  and  unwhole- 
some. " 

Canal  Street. — "Basement  flooded  during  rains  and  filled  with 
water. ' ' 

Desplaines  Street. — "Horrible  cellar."  This  comment  re- 
peated of  a  number  of  other  houses  in  the  neighborhood. 

Dekoven  Street. — "This  building  should  be  condemned;  the 
basement  is  awful."  This  is  the  plumber's  comment. 

Blue  Island  Avenue. — "Cellar  filthy  and  filled  with  rubbish." 

The  results  of  the  general  investigation  are  placed  in  the 
following  table.  A  cellar  is  defined  in  the  city  ordinances  as 
"every  basement  or  lower  story  of  any  building  or  house  of  which 
one-half  or  more  of  the  height,  from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling,  is 
below  the  level  of  the  street  adjoining."  *  A  basement  has  been 
understood  to  mean  "a  room  or  apartment  less  than  one-half  the 
height  of  which  is  below  the  street  level." 


STATISTICS    OF    CELLARS    AND    BASEMENTS 


District. 

Cellars  and  Basements  Compared  with 
All  Apartments. 

Rooms  in  Cellars  and 
Basements. 

All 
Apart- 
ments. 

Cellars. 

Base- 
ments. 

Total. 

Per- 
centage 
of  All. 

Cellars. 

Base- 
ments. 

Total. 

District  i  -       

5,474 
2,796 

1,589 

2O 

49 

32 

I92 
507 
121 

212 

556 
153 

3-8 

19 
9.6 

46 

151 
97 

582 
1,917 
391 

628 

2,o68 
488 

District  2 

District  3  

Totals  - 

9,859 

10! 

820 

92I 

9.2 

294 

2,890 

3,184 

District. 

Population  in 

Cellars. 

Basements. 

Cellars  and  Basements. 

Adults. 

Chil- 
dren. 

Total. 

Adults. 

Chil- 
dren. 

Total. 

Adults. 

Chil- 
dren. 

Total. 

District  i  - 
District  2  - 
District  3  - 

44 
97 
85 

37 
103 

58 

8l 
2OO 
143 

432 
1,251 
284 

454 
1,676 

324 

876 
2,927 
608 

476 
1,348 
369 

491 

i,779 
382 

967 
3,I27 
751 

Totals  -- 

226 

198 

424 

1,967 

2,454 

4,421 

2,193 

2,652 

4,845 

*  City  Ordinances,  1938,  sec.  1375. 


92  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

An  examination  of  this  table  shows  that  about  one  apartment 
in  ten  was  either  a  basement  or  cellar.  In  the  Jewish  and  Italian 
districts  there  were  altogether  212  of  these  dwellings;  but  they 
were  not  a  large  percentage  of  all  dwellings.  In  the  Polish  dis- 
trict the  conditions  are  quite  bad.  Here  the  percentage  of  people 
in  these  unsatisfactory  dwellings  constitutes  nearly  one-fifth  of 
all,  which  is  about  the  same  percentage  of  people  in  this  quarter 
living  in  rear  tenements.  These  two  things  are  significant,  and 
clearly  show  that  the  Polish  people  are  the  most  wretchedly  housed 
of  all  the  people  investigated.  The  worst  of  the  facts  shown  are 
that  424  people  live  in  101  cellars.  The  small  number  of  children 
as  compared  with  adults  would  indicate  that  families  with  children 
keep  out  of  cellars  whenever  possible.  However,  we  see  that 
nearly  five  hundred  more  children  than  adults  live  in  basements. 
The  totals  in  this  table  show  the  fearful  extent  of  this  evil  in 
these  small  districts  of  Chicago;  nearly  five  thousand  people  are 
living  in  basements! 

It  is  not  intended  to  say  that  ail  basements  are  unfit  for  habi- 
tation. Where  houses  are  built  upon  ground  below  the  street 
level,  such  as  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  photograph,  and 
where  the  basement  rooms  are  not  .excluded  from  light  and  are 
properly  protected  against  damp  and  other  insanitary  conditions, 
there  is  no  appreciable  difference  between  a  basement  and  a  first- 
floor  apartment.  Some  of  the  five  thousand  people  live  in  such 
basements.  A  great  many  people  in  the  Bohemian  and  Polish 
quarters  live  in  rows  of  good  basements.  The  lots  of  these 
houses  are  below  the  street  level,  as  is  shown  in  the  photograph, 
and  they  have  naturally  been  utilized  for  three-story  houses 
with  basement  apartments.  Sometimes  there  are  three  apart- 
ments in  the  basement,  one  in  the  front,  one  in  the  middle,  and 
one  in  the  rear  of  the  house.  A  passage,  dark  and  below  the 
street  level,  leads  to  the  middle  and  rear  apartments.  Almost 
without  exception  basement  rooms,  except  those  opening  on  the 
street,  have  wretched  light  and  are  insanitary.  That  this  is  true 
is  well  illustrated  in  the  diagram  (p.  81)  showing  the  lighting  of 
all  the  apartments  in  one  block.  Every  basement  has  one  or 
more  rooms  absolutely  pitch  dark. 

With  the  land  lying  as  low  as  it  does  in  most  parts  of  Chicago, 
no  cellar  can  be  made  fit  to  dwell  in,  and  a  basement  which  is 


TYPICAL    LOT   BELOW   STREET    LEVEL 


94  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

not  constructed  with  water-tight  floors  and  an  unobstructed 
access  to  light,  is  a  dwelling  of  dubious  situation.  It  is  said  by 
an  eminent  authority*  that  damp  walls  absorb  much  more  heat 
than  dry  ones,  and  that  they  are  frequent  agents  in  causing 
rheumatism,  kidney  disease,  and  colds,  f  In  Philadelphia  all 
cellars  deprived  of  light  and  ventilation  are  declared  nuisances 
and  ordered  vacated.  In  Buffalo  the  law  is  that  no  cellar  is  to 
be  used  as  a  dwelling-place  or  place  of  sleeping.  J  In  Chicago 
there  is  an  ordinance  requiring  cellar  floors  to  be  cemented 
water-tight,  but  it  is  not  enforced. 

HOUSES    UNFIT    FOR    HABITATION 

Section  5.  Upon  the  construction  and  repair  of  houses 
depends  good  inside  sanitation.  Chicago  has  an  enormous 
number  of  frame  tenements,  some  of  them  poorly  constructed 
and  in  decay.  The  table  on  page  190  of  the  Appendix  gives 
complete  information  regarding  the  number  and  percentages 
of  frame  and  brick  houses  in  these  districts.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  over  51.7  per  cent  of  all  houses  investigated  were  frame. 
In  the  Italian  and  Jewish  districts  54.6  per  cent  of  the  front 
houses  and  79.9  per  cent  of  the  rear  houses  are  frame.  Although 
small  houses — and  these  are  mostly  frame — are  excellent  houses 
for  working  people,  they  often  fall  into  decay  unless  kept  in  good 
repair.  A  great  deal  of  the  tenement-house  property  is  old  and 
in  a  bad  state.  Aggravated  conditions  arise  from  habitual  neg- 
lect of  needed  repairs;  many  of  the  houses  are  in  a  wretched  and 
dangerous  state  of  dilapidation.  The  roofs  are  leaky  and  the 
spouting  defective.  The  interiors  of  the  houses  become  damp 
and  the  paper  hangs  loosely  from  the  crumbling  and  rotting 
walls.  The  staircases,  the  window-sashes,  and  the  floors  are 
rotten,  and  many  injuries  result  from  their  feeble  condition.  It 
is  almost  impossible  to  keep  such  houses  clean,  and  filth  and  ver- 
min are  most  common.  The  smaller  old  frame  cottages  intended 
for  one  family  have  been  turned  to  the  use  of  two  and  three 
families,  and  the  flimsy  partitions  and  hasty  reconstruction  add 

*  Dr.  Max  Von  Pettenkofer. 

|  Worthington's  "Dwellings  of  the  People,"  page  105. 

JSee  Veiller's  "Housing  Conditions  and  Tenement  Laws,"  page  40. 


WITHOUT  PLAYGROUNDS 


96 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


to  the  general  dilapidation.  The  rear  houses  are  the  worst, 
and  many  should  be  classed  unfit  for  habitation.  The  photo- 
graphs elsewhere  show  many  of  these  wrinkled  and  rotten  old 
houses.  The  old  house  patched  with  tin,  shown  on  page  121,  is 
a  good  example. 

In  the  following  table  and  diagram  the  terms  "good"  and 
"fair"  are  self-explanatory.  "Dilapidated"  was  to  be  used  by 
the  enumerators  when  a  house  had  such  serious  defects  as  to 
endanger  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  tenants.  A  house  was  to 
be  called  "unfit  for  habitation"  when  it  was  incapable  of  being 
restored  to  sanitary  conditions  by  any  reasonable  repairs.  A 
great  many  houses  returned  by  the  enumerators  as  dilapidated 
should  have  been  reported  as  unfit  for  habitation. 

STATISTICS    OF   CONDITION    OF    HOUSES. 
FRONT   HOUSES 


District. 

Classified  as 

Good. 

Fair. 

Dilapidated. 

Unfit. 

Total. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Dist   i 

342 
235 
50 

234 
44-7 
13-8 

819 
262 
294 

56 
49-9 
81.4 

275 
27 
14 

18.8 
5-1 
4 

25 
I 

3 

1-7 
.2 
.1 

1,461 

S1S 
361 



Dist.  2  
Dist.  3  

Total  

627 

26.7 

i,375 

58.6 

3l6 

13-4 

29 

1-3 

2,347 

IOO 

REAR    HOUSES 


District. 

Classified  as 

Good. 

Fair. 

Dilapidated. 

Unfit. 

Total. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Dist    I 

26 

24 
I 

6.6 
IO.I 

i-3 

216 

.184 

75 

54-8 
77-3 
94-9 

134 

25 

3 

34 
10.5 

3-8 

18 

5 

4.6 
2.1 

394 
238 

79 



Dist.  2  
Dist.  3  

TOTAL.-  - 

51 

7-i 

475 

66.8 

162 

22.8 

23 

3-3 

711 

IOO 

TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


97 


FRONT    AND    REAR    HOUSES 


District. 

Classified  as 

Good. 

Fair. 

Dilapidated. 

Unfit. 

Total. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Dist.  I  -   - 

368 
259 
51 

19.8 

34 
1  1.6 

1.035 
446 

369 

55.8 
58.4 
83.8 

409 

52 
17 

22 

6.8 

3-8 

43 
6 

3 

2-3 
.8 

•7 

1,855 
763 
440 

---- 

Dist.  2     - 

Dist.  ^ 

Totals-  -- 

678 

22.2 

1,850 

60.5 

478 

15.6 

52 

1-7 

3,058 

100 

CONDITION    OF    HOUSES    IN    THE    THREE    DISTRICTS,    DISTIN- 
GUISHING   FRONT,    REAR,    AND    TOTAL 

District.  Front  Houses. 


Rear  Houses. 


All  Houses. 


Good.        Fair.        Dilapidated.        Unfit  for  habitation. 


9$  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

This  table  shows  the  result  of  an  examination  into  3,117 
houses,  of  which  3,058  were  classed  as  good,  fair,  dilapidated,  or 
unfit  for  habitation.  As  will  be  seen,  14.7  per  cent  of  the  front 
houses  are  classed  as  dangerous  to  health  and  in  bad  repair. 
The  percentage  of  front  houses  in  the  Polish  and  Bohemian  dis- 
tricts which  are  reprehensible  is  small,  only  amounting  to  5.3 
per  cent;  but  in  the  Jewish  and  Italian  districts  one  house  in 
every  five  was  considered  dangerous.  When  both  front  and  rear 
houses  of  this  district  are  considered,  the  figures  are  astonishingly 
high.  Four  hundred  and  fifty-two  houses  are  dangerous  to  the 
health  and  comfort  of  the  tenants.  In  other  words,  one  house 
in  every  four  is  a  menace !  When  the  grand  totals  are  considered, 
we  find  that  five  hundred  and  thirty  houses  are  in  a  dangerous 
condition  of  decay.  This  makes  a  total  of  17.3  per  cent  of  all 
houses. 

The  diagram  shows  graphically  that  dilapidation  in  the  rear 
houses  exists  to  a  larger  extent  than  in  the  front  houses.  It  also 
shows  very  clearly  that  there  are  fewer  rear  houses  in  good  con- 
dition than  those  classed  as  dangerous  and  unfit  for  habitation. 
As  Dr.  Fetter  says:  "It  is  clear  that  the  rear  houses  average 
worse  than  the  front,  that  the  first  district  averages  worse  than 
the  others,  and  that  the  third  district  is  slightly  better  than  the 
second." 

The  following  comments  of  the  enumerators  show  concretely 
what  the  above  figures  mean.  They  apply  quite  accurately  to  five 
hundred  and  thirty  of  the  houses  investigated. 

Union  Street. — "Condition  of  rear  tenement  is  awful,  awful." 

Maxwell  Street. — "Bad  lighting,  very  dirty." 

Thirteenth  Street. — "A  typical  bad  tenement,  cheap,  narrow, 
dark,  dirty  stairs." 

Ewing  Street.- — "The  worst  house  in  the  region.  The  front  is 
brick,  but  this  is  only  a  shell,  the  rear  being  a  tumbled-down 
frame  so  old  and  rotten  that  the  neighbors  say  they  are  afraid  it 
will  tumble  down  on  them.  The  halls  are  slippery  with  filth  and 
garbage,  and  stairs  are  so  worn  as  to  seem  unsafe." 

New  York  and  Boston  have  laws  which  provide  that  houses 
infected  with  disease,  dangerous  to  life  from  want  of  repairs,  or 
unfit  for  habitation  because  of  defects  in  drainage,  plumbing, 
ventilation,  or  construction,  or  likely  to  cause  sickness  among  the 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  99 

occupants  are  to  be  vacated  within  ten  days.*  Chicago  has  a  law 
providing  that  buildings  unfit  for  habitation  because  so  infected 
with  diseases,  or  from  other  causes  likely  to  cause  sickness  among 
the  occupants,  are  to  be  vacated.  This  law  could  be  enforced 
with  most  beneficial  results  in  many  parts  of  these  districts. -j- 

Under  the  head  of  inside  insanitary  conditions  have  been 
considered  many  of  the  dangerous  results  of  defective  and  unen- 
forced  laws.  Those  houses,  which  are  considered  unfit  for  human 
habitation  because  of  bad  repair,  are  not  the  only  ones  dangerous 
to  the  health  and  life  of  the  working  people.  The  conditions  of 
dark  and  ill-ventilated  rooms,  of  unwholesome  basements,  and  of 
overcrowded  quarters  are  also  dangerous  and  often  pestilential. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  the  Board  of  Health  does  not  constantly 
and  carefully  watch  certain  blocks  and  houses  for  the  purpose  of 
making  known  certain  specific  cases  of  disease  and  misery  which 
have  resulted  from  inside  insanitary  conditions.  The  accumulated 
evils  in  Block  15  surely  warrant  such  systematic  observation. 

*  See  Veiller's  "Housing  Conditions  and  Tenement  Laws,  Etc.,"  p.  40. 
|  See  Veiller's  "Housing  Conditions  and  Tenement  Laws,  Etc.,"  p.  40. 


CHAPTER  V.* 

DEFECTIVE  PLUMBING  AND  BATHS 

THE    PRINCIPLES    OF    SANITARY    PLUMBING 

Section  i.  The  investigation  in  District  i  was  a  house  to 
house  canvas  made  by  five  skilled  plumbers.  As  far  as  possible 
every  portion  of  the  plumbing  was  examined.  In  the  other  two 
districts  a  general  survey  was  made  and  some  selected  houses  in 
each  block  were  carefully  examined.  In  District  2,  sixty-three 
houses,  containing  a  population  of  1,014  people,  were  examined. 
This  is  seven  and  three-tenths  per  cent  of  the  total  population. 
In  District  3,  forty-nine  houses,  containing  735  people,  or  ten  per 
cent  of  the  total  population,  were  examined.  As  these  houses 
were  not  selected  because  they  were  thought  to  have  worse 
plumbing  than  others,  but  because  they  were  typical  of  the  houses 
in  the  district,  the  returns  can  be  relied  upon  as  a  safe  basis  for  an 
estimate  of  the  conditions  of  plumbing  throughout  these  districts. 
The  purpose  of  the  examination  was  to  see  how  far  the  plumbing 
and  waste  disposal  of  the  districts  examined  were  sanitary,  and 
how  far  they  were  defective  and  dangerous  to  health.  In  order 
to  make  clear  the  meaning  of  the  figures  obtained,  a  few  prin- 
ciples observed  in  good  plumbing  will  be  briefly  stated. 

The  word  "plumbing"  applies  to  any  and  all  pipes  used  to  con- 
vey gas  or  liquid  to  or  from  the  house  or  yard.  The  pipes  coming 
into  a  house  may  burst  or  leak  and  thus  endanger  health;  but 
this  rarely  occurs,  is  easily  seen,  and  is  usually  corrected  at  once. 
The  important  part  of  plumbing,  from  -a  sanitary  standpoint,  is 
the  drain  which  carries  off  all  waste  matter  to  the  sewer.  The 
waste-pipes  or  drain  must  be  so  arranged  that  the  waste  water 
and  other  matter  will  flow  into  the  sewer  without  permitting  the 
odors  and  gases  from  the  sewer  to  enter  into  the  rooms  to  con- 
taminate the  air.  To  prevent  the  escape  of  gas,  traps,  vents 

*  This  chapter  was  in  part  adapted  from  the  report  prepared  by  Dr. 
Frank  Fetter. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  101 

and  revents  are  used.  The  trap  is  an  "S"  shaped  pipe,  which 
should  hold  in  its  lower  half  about  three  inches  of  water,  called 
a  "seal,"  which  prevents  the  back-flow  of  gases.  If  the  drain  or 
waste-pipe  into  which  the  trap  empties  becomes  filled  with  water 
flowing  to  the  sewer,  a  partial  vacuum  is  created  which  sucks  out 
the  water;  that  is  to  say,  syphons  the  trap,  and  would,  were  it 
not  for  the  vent  and  revent  pipes,  thus  leave  a  direct  connection 
between  the  rooms  and  the  sewer.  The  vent  is  a  pipe  or  ventilator 
extending  from  the  drain  below  the  trap  through  the  roof.  The 
revent  connects  the  pipe  or  ventilator  with  the  top  of  the  trap  to 
admit  the  air  so  that  no  vacuum  can  be  created  below  the  water 
seal.  A  waste-pipe  without  a  trap  is  extremely  dangerous, 
and  a  trap  without  a  revent  is  not  much  better,  since  it  is 
likely  to  syphon  out  and  admit  into  the  house  the  gases  from  the 
sewer 

The  laws  of  Illinois  and  the  ordinances  of  Chicago  since 
1889  specifically  demand  the  above  mentioned  methods  of  good 
plumbing,  and  all  houses  erected  since  then,  if  within  the  law, 
should  possess  almost  faultless  plumbing  arrangements.*  All 
plans  for  plumbing  in  houses  must  be  submitted  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Health,  and  unless  approved  of  by  the  Chief  Sanitary 
Inspector,  the  plumbing  cannot  be  laid.  After  the  approval  of 
the  plumbing  plans  and  specifications  by  the  Sanitary  Depart- 
ment, an  inspector  is  sent  to  examine  the  plumbing  itself  before 
it  is  covered  up,  and  unless,  after  tests  and  examinations,  it  is 
found  to  be  within  the  law,  it  should  not  be  approved  of  by  the 
inspector.  These  precautions  taken  by  our  law-makers  to  pre- 
vent defective  and  dangerous  plumbing  are  ample,  and  if  enforced 
the  plumbing  in  Chicago  should  be  nearly  perfect. 

THE    CONDITIONS    OF   SINKS,    CATCH-BASINS,    AND 
UND RAINED    LOTS 

Section  2.  The  following  facts  brought  out  by  this  investi- 
gation show  most  wretched  and  dangerous  conditions  resulting 
from  defective  plumbing. 

*  See  pamphlet  on  laws  issued  by  Department  of  Health. 


IO2 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


SINKS    IN   DISTRICT    I  —  BLOCKS    I    TO   44 


Number  in 
Front  Houses. 

Number  in 
Rear  Houses. 

Total. 

Sinks                                   -- 

d.nC'J 

667 

5,620 

Sinks  not  trapped  

68; 

72 

717 

Percentage             

2 
n.6 

IO.^ 

'   1^.4 

MORE    DETAILED    EXAMINATION    IN   TWENTY-FIVE    BLOCKS 

2O    TO    44 


Front  Houses. 

Rear  Houses. 

Total. 

No. 

Per  Ct. 

No., 

Per  Ct. 

No. 

Per  Ct. 

Sinks    total 

2,734 
351 
L385 
1,736 

I~2~8 
50.6 
634 

320 
23 
133 

I56 

7-i 
41.5 
48.6 

3,054 
374 
1,518 
1,892 

12.2 
43.0 

55-2 

Sinks  not  trapped 

Sinks  trapped,  but  not  revented  - 
Sinks  defective  

In  District  i,  the  5,474  dwelling  apartments  have  5,620  sinks. 
In  certain  front  houses  there  are  more  sinks  than  one  in  a  single 
apartment;  but  in  the  rear  houses  there  are  several  apartments 
without  any.  In  769  apartments  in  rear  houses  there  are  only 
667  sinks.  The  percentage  not  trapped  is  very  high,  there  being 
about  one  sink  in  eight  untrapped.  The  results  of  the  more 
complete  examination  of  the  plumbing  in  twenty-five  blocks, 
show  that  374,  or  12.2  per  cent  of  all  sinks,  were  not  trapped; 
1,518,  or  43  per  cent  of  all  sinks,  were  trapped,  but  not  revented. 
In  the  same  blocks  12.2  per  cent  of  the  sinks  had  no  traps  and 
43  per  cent  were  trapped,  but  not  revented,  making  altogether 
55.2  per  cent  of  all  sinks  in  a  dangerous  and  unlawful  condition. 
It  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  over  half  of  the  population  in  District  i 
have  in  their  living-rooms  conditions  prohibited  by  law,  which 
are  a  menace  to  health. 

In  District  2,  221  sinks  were  examined.  Fourteen  were 
found,  in  seven  different  houses,  with  neither  trap  nor  revent. 
One  hundred  and  fourteen,  or  sixty-four  per  cent  of  all  sinks 
inspected,  were  not  properly  revented.  In  the  third  district,  169 
sinks  were  examined,  nine  of  which  had  no  traps,  and  126  others 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  103 

were  not  revented.  Therefore,  135,  or  80  per  cent  of  all  sinks 
investigated,  were  in  a  dangerously  defective  condition. 

A  catch-basin  is  the  outlet  of  the  house  drain  coming  from 
the  sink.  The  basin  should  be  outside  of  the  house  and  closed 
at  a  level  with  the  yard  by  means  of  a  heavy  iron  cover.  The 
purpose  of  a  catch-basin  is  to  intercept  the  grease  and  prevent 
it  from  clogging  the  sewer-pipes.  The  grease  rises  to  the  top 
and  the  water  is  drawn  into  the  sewer  from  underneath.  If  the 
catch-basin  is  not  cleaned  regularly  the  grease  is  likely  to  stop  up 
the  house  drain. 

The  results  of  the  inquiry  upon  this  subject  were  most  unsatis- 
factory. The  catch-basins  were  under  the  ground,  and  in  only  a 
few  cases  could  they  be  located.  In  many  cases  it  could  not  be 
determined  whether  they  were  catch-basins  or  the  dangerous 
cesspool.  That  there  are  cesspools  in  the  districts  investigated 
is  reasonably  sure,  since  upon  examination  of  some  old  houses, 
recently  torn  down,  the  remains  of  some  were  discovered.  The 
old  privy  vault  is  made  to  serve  as  a  cesspool  in  a  few  instances. 
There  are  almost  no  returns  from  the  inquiry,  which  is  evidence 
enough  that  a  law  is  needed  ordering  all  catch-basins  to  open  on 
a  level  with  the  yard  where  it  is  possible  to  inspect  them.  How- 
ever, forty-two  catch-basins  were  noted  which  should  be 
cleaned. 

It  was  in  many  cases  impossible  to  determine  accurately 
whether  or  not  lots  were  drained  into  the  sewer.  However,  very 
few  of  the  houses  in  District  i  were  thus  drained.  In  District  2, 
fifty  per  cent  of  those  examined  were  not  drained,  and  in  Dis- 
trict 3  fifty-eight  per  cent  were  not  drained.  When  the  lots  are 
below  the  grade  of  the  streets,  as  is  the  rule  in  these  districts,  it 
is  of  great  importance  to  have  the  lot  drained,  otherwise  the 
water  will  run  into  the  basements  or  under  the  foundations  of  the 
houses.  Water  was  often  seen  standing  under  the  rotten  wooden 
pavements  in  the  courts,  passages,  and  yards.  The  ordinance 
of  1891  (Sec.  31,  p.  17,  in  the  pamphlet  reprint  of  1896)  requires 
"that  yards  and  areas  shall  be  properly  graded,  cemented, 
flagged  or  well  paved,  and  properly  drained."  This  law  is  cer- 
tainly not  enforced. 


104  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


THE    PREVALENCE    OF    THE    OUTLAWED    PRIVY   VAULT 

Section  3.  Privies  are  of  two  kinds:  first,  the  old  type  of 
vault,  which  is  merely  a  hole  dug  in  the  ground,  entirely  without 
sewer  connections;  and  second,  a  vault  connected  with  the 
sewer,  flushed  intermittently  and  with  some  difficulty  by  the 
rain-water  from  the  roof  or  by  water  from  a  hydrant.  The  main 
difference  between  the  two  kinds  of  vaults  is  the  trouble  in  the 
cleaning.  They  are  almost  equally  offensive,  and  some  of  the 
worst  cases  inspected  were  sewer-connected.  The  open,  untrap- 
ped  sewer  connection  is  more  dangerous  in  a  way,  since  it  adds 
to  other  evils  the  one  of  escaping  gases.  Both  kinds  are  against 
the  law.  An  ordinance  passed  June  25,  1894  (Sec.  4956,  p.  21, 
in  pamphlet  reprint  of  1896),  declares  it  to  be  unlawful  for 
any  one  to  maintain  a  privy  vault  or  suffer  it  to  remain  where 
there  is  a  public  sewer  in  the  adjoining  street  or  alley.  A  fine 
of  two  hundred  dollars  is  the  penalty  for  each  offense.  The 
results  in  the  first  district  examined  are  shown  in  the  tables  which 
give  the  number  at  the  time  of  the  inspection.  There  were 
1,581  privies  or  separate  compartments.  As  there  are  always 
two  compartments  to  a  vault,  the  number  of  vaults  is  about  one- 
half  of  1,581,  which  is  the  number  reported.  These  outlawed 
accommodations  are  now  used  by  10,686  people;  that  is  to  say, 
about  40.3  per  cent  of  the  total  population. 

In  District  2,  twelve  separate  vaults,  serving  for  twenty-four 
privies,  were  found  with  the  sixty-three  houses  examined.  It  was 
found  that  19.5  per  cent  of  all  the  families  used  these  accommo- 
dations, which  is  an  average  of  1.9  families,  or  nine  persons,  for 
each  privy.  In  District  3,  the  proportion  was  much  higher,  there 
being  found  in  the  forty-nine  houses  examined  twenty-two  vaults, 
serving  for  fifty  privies.  These  were  used  by  fifty-two  per  cent 
of  the  total  number  of  families.  An  average  of  1.6  families,  or 
eight  individuals,  used  each  privy. 

The  most  shocking  conditions  prevail  in  the  districts  infected 
with  this  remnant  of  the  broad  spaces  of  village  days.  It  is 
unworthy  of  Chicago  to  permit  the  evil  to  continue,  and  the 
Board  of  Health  without  favoritism  should  execute  the  law  which 
provides  for  these  privies  to  be  abolished. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


I05 


STATISTICS    OF    PRIVIES 


Block 
No. 

No.  of 
Privies. 

No.  of 
Families 
Using. 

No.  of 
Individuals 
Using. 

Block 
No. 

No.  of 
Privies. 

No.  of 
Families 
Using. 

No.  of 
Individuals 
Using. 

I 

47 

56 

250 

23 

29 

41 

197 

2 

33     112 

538 

24 

33 

27 

152 

3 

18     26 

133 

25 

19 

19 

89 

4 

17       22 

83 

26 

23 

24 

118 

5 

82    143 

637 

27 

9 

18 

00 

6     45     73 

313 

28 

5 

9 

40 

7     di     60 

288 

29 

ii 

17 

76 

8 

25 

24 

131 

30 

27 

50 

239 

9 

66 

87 

431 

31 

14 

38 

197 

10 

35 

57 

265 

32 

18 

28 

155 

ii 

3i 

56 

231 

33 

21 

29 

133 

12 

29 

44 

214 

34 

65 

78 

429 

13 

66 

91 

325 

35 

29 

53 

252 

14 

37 

61 

240 

36 

65 

93 

477 

15 

52 

78 

390 

37 

19 

22        QI 

16 

28 

26 

I36 

38 

35 

27       138 

17 

92 

132 

611 

39 

12 

21 

9i 

18 

40 

58 

244 

40 

36 

57 

273 

'9 

44 

69 

267 

4i 

74 

98 

476 

20 

35 

34 

146 

42 

8 

ii 

64 

21 

48 

67 

315 

43 

40 

43 

2.12 

22 

26 

69 

267 

44 

52 

60 

242 

Totals   - 

44 

1,581 

2,308 

10,686 

SUMMARY 


Families. 

Individuals. 

PerCent 
Families. 

PerCent 

Individuals 

District  i 

2,^08 

10686 

44.6 

4O.  T, 

Selected  houses,    District  2  
Selected   houses,    District  3  

45 
80 

215 

374 

19.5 

52.O 

2I.O 

51-7 

INSANITARY    WATER-CLOSETS 

Section  4.  A  simple  form  of  water-closet,  called  a  bench  range 
or  school  range,  consists  of  a  trough  filled  with  water,  which  is 
emptied  by  drawing  the  plug  that  connects  with  the  sewer.  Only 
one  of  these  was  found  in  the  districts  inspected.  Another  form 
is  the  pan  closet,  an  old  and  imperfect  form,  which  cannot  be 


io6 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


used  in  the  house  without  danger,  and  is  forbidden  by  a  city  ordi- 
nance, passed  November  23,  1896  (see  pamphlet  reprint,  p.  19). 
A  third  form  is  the  hopper  closet,  which  is  a  basin  connected 
with  a  curved  pipe  to  the  sewer,  and  flushed  with  water  by  turn- 
ing a  rod  which  opens  a  faucet  at  the  top.  This  form  is  much 
used  out  of  doors,  under  sidewalks,  and  in  cellars.  It  is  cheap, 
simple,  and  not  likely  to  freeze  or  get  out  of  order.  It  is,  how- 
ever, found  often  in  houses,  and  as  it  easily  becomes  corroded  it 
is  then  difficult  to  keep  clean  and  becomes  very  insanitary.  The 
best  form  is  the  tank  closet,  in  the  basin  of  which  stands  a  supply 
of  water,  which  assists  in  the  flushing  caused  by  the  flow  of  water 
from  the  tank  above.  The  following  table  gives  the  number  of 
these  different  kinds  of  closets. 


KINDS    OF    CLOSETS    IN    DISTRICT    I 


Front  Houses. 

Rear  Houses. 

Total. 

Pan 

CO 

j 

80 

Hopper 

77 

O7I 

Tank  - 

ZoZ 

2C 

80; 

Unspecified 

QT 

Totals 

1,762 

103 

1,958 

As  will  be  seen,  there  are  eighty-nine  pan  closets  which 
exist  in  defiance  of  the  law.  The  other  closets  are  about  equally 
divided  between  the  undesirable  hopper  and  the  tank  closets. 

In  District  2,  of  the  sixty-nine  closets  examined,  four  were  in 
a  bench  range,  sixty-one  were  hopper,  and  four  were  tanks.  The 
last  four  were  all  in  one  house.  In  the  third  district,  of  the 
forty-one  closets  reported  upon,  one  was  pan,  twenty-three  hop- 
per, and  seventeen  tank  closets. 

The  location  of  the  closets  in  the  first  district  was  usually  in 
the  house.  Many,  however,  were  in  basements  and  yards;  a  very 
few  were  under  the  sidewalks.  In  District  2,  of  the  sixty-nine 
closets,  eight  were  in  the  house,  two  in  the  yard,  and  fifty-nine 
were  under  the  sidewalk.  The  sidewalk  closets  were  never 
revented,  and  three  of  those  in  the  house  were  not.  In  District  3, 
there  were  thirty-three  in  the  house,  two  on  the  porch,  and  eleven 
under  the  sidewalk.  Those  under  the  sidewalk  were  not  revented, 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


107 


and  one-half  of  those  in  the  house  were  not.  While  the  closet  in 
the  house  is  the  more  convenient,  it  requires  more  expensive 
plumbing  to  be  sanitary.  For  some  reason  the  sidewalk  closet 
has  been  positively  forbidden  in  a  number  of  cases  since  1891, 
under  a  city  ordinance,  which  reads,  ''The  general  privy  accom- 
modations of  a  tenement-house  or  lodging-house  shall  not  be 
permitted  in  the  cellar,  basement,  or  under  sidewalks."  As  the 
definition  of  tenement-house  is  any  house  occupied  by  more  than 
three  families  living  independently,  etc.,  and  cooking  on  the 
premises,  or  by  more  than  two  families  on  a  floor,  the  ordinance 
prohibits  most  of  the  cases  found.  This  is  another  of  the  many 
instances,  found  in  the  plumbing  investigation,  of  unenforced 
ordinances. 

The  following  table  shows  the   number  of   places  where   the 
plumbing  was  found  to  be  in  a  condition  dangerous  to  health : 


INSANITARY    WATER-CLOSETS 


Location 

Front 

Rear. 

Total. 

All  closets 

I  838 

1  2O 

i  o<;8 

Closets  not  open  to  outer  air_  . 
Closets  not  revented  - 

157 
I.IW 

18 

71 

175 

1,221 

Closets  not  properly  trapped  -  - 
Closets  not  properly  flushed-  .. 
Unclean 

39 
107 

21,6 

4 

10 

39 
in 
246 

This  table  shows  that  175  closets  are  not  open  .to  the  outer 
air.  The  ordinances  distinctly  provide  that  closets  shall  be 
ventilated  by  opening  to  the  air  either  by  means  of  a  window  or 
an  air-shaft.  Twenty-six  of  the  closets  not  open  to  the  outer 
air  are  situated  in  halls,  thirty-eight  in  basements,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  nine  in  rooms.  Almost  every  large  city  has  a  law  on 
the  subject.  The  more  advanced  communities  prohibit  a  closet 
being  placed  in  any  close  connection  with  the  living-rooms  of  a 
tenement.  A  London  ordinance  compels  all  closets  to  open  to 
the  outer  air  by  means  of  a  window  of  not  less  than  two  square 
feet.  It  is  most  advisable,  if  sanitary  conditions  are  to  be  main- 
tained, that  all  closets  should  be  thoroughly  lighted,  so  as  to 
make  it  possible  for  them  to  be  kept  pure  and  clean.  It  is  also 


io8 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


essential  that  they  should  be  adequately  ventilated  into  the  open 
and  outer  air. 

Among  other  facts  furnished  in  this  investigation  are  those 
which  point  to  the  lack  of  sufficient  accommodation  in  the  num- 
ber of  water-closets.  Although  there  is  an  ordinance  providing 
that  there  shall  be  a  water-closet  for  every  two  families,  several 
instances  were  found  where  one  closet  was  used  by  four  or  more 
families.  The  importance  of  enforcing  the  law  in  this  respect  will 
be  at  once  seen,  as  it  involves  decency  as  well  as  health. 

THE    NEED    OF    BATHS 

Section  5.  In  District  r  all  of  the  houses  were  inspected  for 
the  purpose  of  determining  the  exact  number  of  bath-tubs;  164 
were  found.  Only  three  bath-tubs  were  found  in  the  408  rear 
houses,  which  it  will  be  remembered  have  a  population  of  3,200 
persons;  161  were  found  in  1,598  front  houses,  which  have  a 
population  of  21,612  people.  Twenty-four  of  these  baths  were 
found  in  one  apartment  building  recently  erected.  In  the  Polish 
district  only  one  tub  was  found  in  the  sixty-three  houses  exam- 
ined, and  it  was  not  connected  with  the  water-pipes.  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  there  are  any  bath-tubs  in  this  district.  In  the 
Bohemian  district  there  were  eight  bath-tubs  in  the  forty-nine 
houses.  Five  of  these  were  found  in  good  flats  on  Blue  Island 
Avenue.  It  is  probable  that  an  estimate  on  this  basis  would 
overrun  the  actual  facts. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  and  per  cent  of  the 
population  in  District  i  having  and  not  having  bath-tubs: 


POPULATION    HAVING   AND    NOT    HAVING    BATH-TUBS 


Having    1 

5ath-tubs. 

Having  no 

Bath-tubs. 

Number 

Per  Cent. 

Number 

Per  Cent. 

One  (Italian)-- 

-117 

2.O 

17  041 

O7.I 

One  (Jewish) 

•17-3 

2  c6 

10  079 

y/.i 

06  11 

Totals  -     - 

790 

3.18 

24,022 

96.72 

This   table  shows    that   ninety-six   per   cent   of   the   working 
people  have  no  opportunity  in  their  own  homes  to  bathe.      These 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  109 

percentages  are  in  almost  perfect  accord  with  the  results  found 
in  the  investigation  of  the  National  Bureau  of  Labor  in  1894. 
That  inquiry  covered  some  of  the  conditions  in  the  First  Ward 
and  only  the  Italian  portion  of  District  i. 

It  is  surely  safe,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  both  investigations 
have  found  so  nearly  the  same  conditions  existing,  to  use  these 
percentages  for  the  basis  of  an  estimate  to  show  the  number  of 
people  in  Chicago  who  are  without  baths.  Leaving  out  the  popu- 
lation in  the  old  4th,  i2th,  i3th,  i4th,  2ist,  22d,  24th,  25th,  26th, 
28th,  3ist,  32d,  and  35th  wards,  and  taking  only  half  the  popu- 
lation in  the  old  ad,  3d,  nth,  23d,  2pth,  and  34th  wards,  and  all  of 
the  population  in  the  rest  of  the  wards,  we  find,  according  to  the 
school  census  of  1900,  that  over  one  million  people  live  in  these 
districts.  These  wards,  any  one  will  agree,  are  fairly  chosen, 
and  house,  in  certain  or  all  portions,  working  people  in  not 
much  better  circumstances  than  those  in  parts  of  District  i,  and 
in  the  Bohemian  and  Polish  districts.  Those  wards  in  which  only 
half  the  population  has  been  taken  are  each  more  than  half  given 
over  to  working  people.  Granting  that  four  per  cent  of  this 
large  population  have  baths,  we  find  in  this  rough  way  that  about 
960,000  people  in  Chicago  are  without  bathing  facilities. 

The  choice  for  most  laborers  in  Chicago  is  to  pay  the  twenty- 
five  cents  commonly  charged  for  the  use  of  a  bath,  or  to  bathe  at 
long  intervals  at  home.  In  their  own  overcrowded  and  narrow 
homes  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  privacy  for  bathing.  If  a  bath  be 
taken,  the  water  must  be  brought  from  the  faucet,  and  at  best 
the  bath  is  unsatisfactory.  Generally  the  people  do  not  take 
baths,  especially  in  winter,  and  upon  children  dirt  often  accumu- 
lates in  what  might  be  called  scales.  This,  however,  does  not 
prove  that  the  people  do  not  wish  to  bathe ;  that  they  do  is 
amply  proved  by  the  extensive  patronage  given  the  four  public 
baths  owned  and  conducted  by  the  city.  The  attendants  in  these 
baths  and  those  at  the  pumping  station  say  that  workingmen  near 
by,  whenever  possible,  come  in  regularly  for  a  spray  bath  before 
going  home  to  supper.  Those  having  the  dirtiest  work,  or  work 
arduous  enough  to  cause  their  clothing  to  be  foul  with  perspira- 
tion, bring  clean  suits  of  clothing  which  they  are  in  the  habit  of 
wearing  in  the  evenings  or  on  Sundays.  In  the  Stock  Yards  dis- 


no  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

trict  the  women  bring  their  children  regularly  to  secure  their 
weekly  bath.  For  the  people  living  in  the  vicinity  of  public 
baths,  the  need  of  bathing  is  supplied,  but  for  the  several  hun- 
dred thousand  people  who  live  in  districts  far  removed  from 
these  establishments,  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  a  bath  is  great. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

OUTSIDE  INSANITARY  CONDITIONS 

IMPORTANCE    OF    OUTSIDE    SANITARY    CONDITIONS 

Section  i.  This  study  must  also  treat  of  the  many  conditions 
outside  of  the  houses  which  influence  the  life  of  the  tenement- 
house  population.  The  constant  though  subtle  and  active  influ- 
ences of  filth,  disorder,  and  noxious  conditions  upon  the  habits 
and  tastes  of  the  people  are  not  the  only  bad  effects  of  such  sur- 
roundings. The  most  important  are  those  insanitary  and  danger- 
ous conditions  which  add  to  the  distress,  weaknesses,  and  bad 
health  of  the  working  people.  When  the  home  of  a  poor  family 
living  in  these  overcrowded  districts  is  entered  from  a  broken, 
dangerous  sidewalk  and  badly  paved,  unclean  street,  with  rows  of 
foul  garbage  boxes  standing  before  the  doors,  how  great  is  the 
surprise  if  a  clean,  well-scrubbed,  and  orderly  interior  is  found, 
because  it  is  easy  to  see  what  a  struggle  it  has  been  to  make  it  so 
and  what  painful  labor  it  has  cost.  The  photographs  introduced 
in  the  following  pages  show  how  filthy  these  streets  and  alleys  are. 
Cleanliness  is  almost  a  luxury  in  Chicago  and  a  high  price  is  paid 
for  it.  A  family  with  much  work  to  do — and  most  working 
people  have  too  much  already — can  hardly  be  clean.  It  is  with 
cleanliness  in  Chicago  as  it  is  with  infectious  diseases  and  most 
other  things,  which  cannot  be  disassociated  from  their  surround- 
ings, for  the  neglect  of  the  municipality  in  trifling  with  the  smoke 
nuisance,  in  neglecting  street  cleaning  and  garbage  removal, 
penalizes  the  just  and  the  unjust.  A  foul  privy  or  decaying 
matter  in  the  garbage  box  respects  the  clean  housekeeper  no 
more  than  the  unclean  one.  Nor  does  a  defective  sidewalk 
choose  its  victim  by  moral  standards.  In  this  and  many  other 
ways,  the  outside  sanitary  conditions  of  streets  and  alleys,  of 
garbage  and  manure  boxes,  of  vacant  lots  and  other  surrounding 
conditions,  bear  an  intimate  and  important  relation  to  the  housing 
problems  of  Chicago.  * 


112 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


BADLY    PAVED    AND    UNCLEAN    STREETS    AND    ALLEYS 

Section  2.  The  streets  and  alleys  are  to  the  people  of  a  well- 
to-do  district  only  a  convenience  for  transit.  In  an  overcrowded 
tenement  district  there  is  little  else  more  important  to  the  happi- 
ness and  welfare  of  the  people.  For  the  children  of  the  rear 
tenements,  the  alleys  are  playgrounds.  They  also  assure  by 
their  open  spaces  light  and  ventilation  to  the  houses.  If  they 
are  clean  they  serve  this  purpose  to  the  comfort  and  satisfaction 
of  many,  but  if  they  are  foul  and  covered  with  undisturbed  filth 
they  detract  rather  than  add  to  the  healthfulness  and  well-being 
of  the  community.  Streets,  even  more  than  alleys,  serve  the 
purpose  of  playgrounds  and  open  spaces.  In  the  evenings,  when 
the  weather  permits,  these  places  swarm  with  the  people  from 
the  neighboring  overcrowded  houses.  This  common  property, 
in  the  districts  where  it  serves  as  little  more  than  a  convenience, 
is  given  some  care;  while  in  the  districts  where  it  is  a  vital 
necessity  it  is  wretchedly  neglected. 

A  study  of  these  public  thoroughfares  in  the  neglected  por- 
tions of  the  city  now  under  consideration  will  show  how  true  the 
above  observations  are.  The  following  table  gives  the  miles  of 
streets  and  alleys  in  the  three  districts  investigated.  It  gives 
the  blocks  with  no  alleys,  those  with  blind  alleys,  and  those 
having  through  alleys. 

STATISTICS    OF    STREETS    AND    ALLEYS 


District. 

Number  of  Miles  of 

Number  of  Blocks  with 

Street. 

Alley. 

No  Alley. 

Partial 
Alley. 

Through 
Alley. 

District  i 

7.6 

2.6 

2 

L* 

i.i 

8 

12 

24 
IO 

8 

District  2 

District  3 

I 

--- 

Total 

12.2 

77 

9 

12 

42 

Investigation  shows  that  alleys  and  streets  together  contain 
approximately  one-third  of  the  entire  area.  Seven  of  the  blocks 
without  alleys  in  District  i  are,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  map  on 


H4  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

page  13,  in  the  two  northern  rows,  and  one  is  just  south  of 
Twelfth  Street.  The  only  block  without  an  alley  in  the  other  two 
districts  is  a  small  triangular  one  adjacent  to  Blue  Island  Avenue. 

In  District  i,  in  August,  1900,  there  was  not  a  single  moder- 
ately well-paved  street,  excepting  Halsted.  That  street  was 
paved  with  brick  about  a  year  before.  During  the  summer 
Ewing  Street  was  paved  with  brick,  Liberty  Street  with  cedar 
blocks,  and  Desplaines  Street  is  now  being  repaved.  The 
change  in  their  appearance  is  notable.  Several  blocks  south  of 
Twelfth  have  fairly  well  preserved  cedar  block  pavements,  par- 
ticularly near  the  Foster  School,  on  Union  and  O'Brien  streets. 
The  other  streets  are  in  various  advanced  stages  of  decay  and 
dilapidation.  The  cedar  blocks  beginning  to  break  up  are 
loosened  by  passing  wagons,  and  are  quickly  taken  by  the  people 
and  used  for  fire-wood.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  three  or  four  miles 
of  street  in  the  district  are  practically  unpaved.  Apparently 
these  streets  have  never  been  paved.  But  in  fact  most  of  them 
were  paved  about  fifteen  years  ago.  Ewing  Street,  for  example, 
was  paved  in  July,  1885.  Desplaines  Street,  done  at  the  same 
time,  was  repaved  from  Harrison  to  Taylor  in  November,  1892. 

The  streets  in  Districts  2  and  3  are  nearly  all  paved  with  cedar 
blocks  and  are  in  fair  condition.  Nevertheless  there  are  many 
ruts  and  holes  in  them.  More  alleys  appear  never  to  have  been 
paved  than  streets.  Those  that  have  been  are  usually  in  much 
better  repair,  as  they  do  not  receive  such  hard  usage. 

The  kind  of  pavement  to  be  used  in  tenement-house  districts 
is  important.  Both  the  cedar  block  and  brick  pavements  are 
less  sanitary  and  more  difficult  to  keep  clean  than  asphalt.  The 
New  York  Tenement-House  Commission  of  1894  made  a  careful 
study  of  this  subject,  and  in  its  report  recommended:*  "That 
the  system  of  asphalt  pavements  be  extended  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible throughout  the  streets  of  the  tenement-house  districts  of 
the  city."  In  regard  to  the  value  of  this  kind  of  pavements  it 
says:  "It  would  seem  that  this  style  of  pavement  is  of  all  others 
the  easiest  to  keep  clean,  owing  to  its  smoothness.  Traffic 
through  the  streets  on  which  tenement-houses  are  built  is  not,  as 
a  rule,  heavy  enough  to  require  the  more  solid  pavement  of  stone. 
In  the  latter  pavement,  while  it  will  stand  more  heavy  trucking 

*See  pages  76  and  77. 


Ii6  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

than  any  other,  there  are  small  cracks  or  interstices  between  the 
granite  blocks,  and  in  these  dirt  and  other  matter  lodges  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  prevent  the  mechanical  sweeps  from  removing 
them.  Most  of  the  material  found  in  street  sweepings,  espe- 
cially in  tenement  districts,  is  composed  of  animal  and  vegetable 
matter,  containing  micro-organisms  of  pathogenic  character. 
Not  only  can  asphalt  pavement  be  thoroughly  swept,  but  when 
necessary,  as  in  times  of  threatened  epidemic,  it  may  be  washed 
as  clean  as  the  floor  of  a  house.  It  was  stated  by  a  witness  before 
the  Committee  that  an  objection  to  the  asphalt  system  had  been 
made  on  the  ground  that,  owing  to  the  absence  of  noise  when 
carts  or  wagons  are  driven  over  it,  children  on  the  streets  are 
not  warned  of  the  approach  of  these  vehicles,  and  are,  therefore, 
in  danger  of  being  run  over.  The  Committee  has  considered  this 
reasoning  carefully,  but  it  finds  itself  unable  to  attach  any  great 
importance  to  the  objection.  This  very  absence  of  noise  is  one 
of  the  greatest  advantages  of  the  system,  especially  in  the  more 
crowded  tenement-house  districts." 

Whether  the  paving  is  good  or  bad,  the  streets  in  Chicago  are 
always  filthy.  Almost  no  care  is  given  by  the  city  to  the  streets  of 
these  districts.  The  following  statements  have  been  taken  from 
the  enumerators'  reports :  "The  resident  property  owners  appear 
willing  to  pay  if  they  can  have  clean  streets.  One  of  them  said, 
'It  pays,  anything  to  be  clean,  if  you  had  to  pay  interest  and 
compound  interest. '  On  West  Twelfth  Place  the  resident  owners 
wished  to  have  the  street  paved,  but  alien  owners,  especially  a 
large  corporation  on  the  street,  opposed  and  prevented  it.  A 
thrifty  and  wealthy  non-resident  owner  in  the  north  part  of  the 
district  raised  his  rents  a  year  ago,  which  the  tenants  were  will- 
ing to  pay  in  anticipation  of  a  new  street  pavement  which  has 
not  yet  been  laid.  And  yet,  despite  this  desire  for  better  con- 
ditions, Polk  Street  has  not  been  cleaned  for  fifteen  months. 
Several  witnesses  say  that  Taylor  Street  was  last  swept  over  a 
year  ago.*  Residents  of  Dekoven  Street  say,  with  exaggeration 
perhaps,  that  it  has  not  been  swept  for  years.  But  similar  testi- 
mony is  given  concerning  the  streets  and  alleys  all  over  the  dis- 
trict. In  some  places  the  people  do  the  sweeping  themselves. 
The  alleys  are  much  neglected  everywhere.  It  is  said  that  the 

*Date  of  inquiry,  August,  1900. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  117 

reason  given  by  the  authorities  for  their  failure  to  clean  the 
streets  in  some  places  is  that  the  paving  is  too  bad  to  be  kept 
clean.  That  this  is  not  always  the  case  has  been  proved  by 
effort  on  the  part  of  certain  residents.  In  another  case  the 
authorities  declared  that  an  alley  was  not  cleaned  because  it  was 
unpaved.  But  one  who  went  prospecting  found  sound  pavement 
a  foot  beneath  the  surface.  " 

This  neglect  of  the  streets  and  alleys  produces  conditions  of 
filth.  Badly  paved  and  ill-kept  as  the  streets  are  in  Chicago,  the 
conditions  near  the  lake  on  the  South  and  North  sides  impress 
one,  coming  from  these  neglected  districts,  as  highly  satisfactory. 
It  is  common  in  District  i  to  see  teams  stalled  in  the  mud,  the 
wagon-wheels  sunk  to  the  hub.  On  any  morning  after  a  heavy 
rain  one  can  see,  in  the  course  of  a  half-mile's  walk,  a  score  of 
teams,  each  straining  every  muscle  to  pull  a  heavily  loaded  wagon 
out  of  a  crevice  in  the  pavement,  or  in  the  absence  of  pavements, 
out  of  the  deep  mire.  One  never  grows  accustomed  to  this  com- 
mon occurrence.  To  see  the  nervous,  steaming  horses  plunging 
about  in  vain  efforts  to  move  the  heavy  load  and  the  driver 
beating  them  brutally  is  sickening. 

The  streets  are  not  only  unfit  for  their  real  purposes;  their 
filthy  condition  is  also  insanitary.  This  delinquency  of  the  city 
has  other  bad  results,  for  the  people  seeing  how  unfit  the  streets 
are,  use  them  as  catch-alls  for  garbage.  It  happens  sometimes 
that  streets  are  not  cleaned  for  a  year  or  more.  It  is  then  that  the 
gradual  accumulations  of  dirt,  mud,  rotting  vegetables,  and  gar- 
bage, makes  them  as  noisome  and  insanitary  as  a  city  refuse  dump. 
Remember  that  the  streets  and  alleys  are  almost  the  only  breath- 
ing-spaces of  over  three  hundred  thousand  people  living  in  the 
river  wards. 

THE    EXTRAVAGANCE    OF   DANGEROUS    SIDEWALKS 

Section  3.  Sidewalks  cannot  be  so  insanitary  as  streets,  but 
in  a  different  way  they  may  be  dangerous  to  human  life.  A  care- 
ful statement  regarding  the  condition  of  all  sidewalks  and  the 
materials  of  which  they  are  constructed  was  returned  on  the 
schedules.*  The  tabulation  following  gives  the  results: 

*A  "walk"  is  here  understood  to  mean  only  that  part  of  the  sidewalk 
in  front  of  each  house. 


iiS 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


STATISTICS    OF    MATERIAL   AND    CONDITION   OF   SIDEWALKS 


District 

Material  of  Pavement. 

Number 
Unpaved. 

Number 
Wood. 

Number  Stone 
or  Concrete. 

Total  Number 
Reported. 

One                 --   --- 

25 
2 

1,481 

479 
295 

'8 

73 

l,66l 

549 
368 

Two 

Three 

Total 

27 
.OI 

2,255 
87.6 

296 
11.4 

2,578 

IOO 

Percentage 

Classification  of  Condition. 


District. 

Number 
Good. 

Number 
Fair. 

Number 
Bad. 

Number 
Dangerous. 

Total 
Number. 

One                   -  -- 

E;QO 

4O2 

^04 

no 

1,  606 

Two      -          _ 

-)^j 

2O1 

163 

III 

IT. 

550 

Three 

284 

so 

20 

c 

368 

Total 

ImlV 

615 

644 

128 

2,524 

Percentage  -  - 

45 

24.2 

25-5 

5-3 

Condition  of  sidewalks. 

Percentage  of  all  side-     •— 
walks  in  four  speci- 
fied classes.  L 


24.2$ 


25-5$      5-3$ 


Good. 


Fair. 


Bad.     Danger- 
ous. 


As  will  be  seen  in  the  table,  the  walks  in  District  3  are  in 
better  condition  than  those  found  elsewhere.  A  large  proportion 
are  of  stone  or  concrete,  and  only  thirty-four  are  considered 
in  bad  condition.  These  are  probably  all  wood.  In  District  2 
a  large  number,  amounting  to  twenty-two  per  cent  of  the  walks, 
are  considered  bad  and  dangerous.  In  District  i,  where  the 
wood  sidewalk  is  universal,  the  conditions  are  extremely  bad; 
614  of  the  walks,  or  thirty-eight  per  cent  of  all,  are  either  bad 
or  dangerous.  Many  walks  are  little  more  than  bridges  of  rotten 
wood.  There  is  hardly  a  street  in  certain  portions  of  the  Italian 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


119 


and  Jewish  district  where  the  walks  are  not  in  places  dangerous; 
where  they  are  five  or  six  feet  above  the  surrounding  lots,  to  have 
boards  in  the  sidewalk  break  means  serious  injury.  Many  people 
are  injured  each  year  in  Chicago  by  dangerous  sidewalks. 


The  cost  of  the  defective  sidewalks  to  the  city  each  year  is 
very  great.  The  City  Attorney,  in  his  report  to  the  Council, 
says:*  "The  total  number  of  suits  now  pending  against  the  City 
of  Chicago  for  personal  injuries  by  reason  of  defective  sidewalks 
and  streets  is  1,404,  and  the  total  damages  claimed  in  these  cases 
is  $22,550,000.  There  are  also  pending  151  petitions  and  claims 
referred  to  this  department  by  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  City 

*See  Proceedings  of  the  Regular  Meeting  of  City  Council,  January  8, 
1900. 


120  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Council,  wherein  no  specific  sum  is  claimed.  The  total  number 
of  suits  at  law  and  petitions  pending  is  1,554. 

"I  desire  to  direct  the  attention  of  your  honorable  body  to 
the  alarming  increase  of  this  class  of  litigation  against  the  City 
of  Chicago  during  the  past  few  years,  and  that  it  may  be  more 
fully  appreciated,  I  quote  the  following  figures  from  the  reports 
of  my  predecessors:  'On  January  i,  1897,  there  were  pending 
716  suits  at  law,  and  petitions  and  claims  for  personal  injuries, 
wherein  the  City  of  Chicago  was  defendant.  On  January  i,  1898, 
there  were  991  suits  and  claims  of  this  character.  January  i, 
1899,  there  were  1,115  suits  and  claims  of  this  character.  On 
January  i,  1900,  there  were  1,541  suits  and  claims  of  this  char- 
acter. ' 

"It  will  be  noted  that  within  three  years  this  class  of  cases 
has  increased  over  one  hundred  per  cent,  and  if  the  amounts  of 
judgments  increase  correspondingly,  the  report  of  next  year  will 
show  at  least  one  million  dollars'  worth  of  judgments  rendered 
against  the  City  of  Chicago  for  personal  injuries.  This  matter  is 
too  important  to  be  overlooked,  and  cases  of  this  character  are 
becoming  too  frequent  not  to  cause  serious  apprehension.  There 
are  a  number  of  reasons  why  this  class  of  cases  has  increased  so 
alarmingly  during  the  past  few  years.  The  cardinal  one,  how- 
ever, is  the  condition  of  the  sidewalks  and  streets  at  the  present 
time.  I  have  directed  the  attention  of  a  sub-committee  of  your 
honorable  body  to  the  deplorable  condition  of  sidewalks  through- 
out every  ward  in  the  city,  and  the  difficulty  of  this  department 
in  defending  the  interests  of  the  city  because  of  this  existing 
condition,  and  I  have  recommended  that  an  ordinance  be  passed 
prohibiting  the  further  laying  of  plank  or  wooden  sidewalks.  Up 
to  the  present  time,  no  action  has  been  taken  by  your  body  in 
this  respect,  but  I  earnestly  hope  that  an  ordinance  framed  along 
these  lines  will  be  speedily  adopted.  The  judgment  account 
against  the  City  of  Chicago,  because  of  these  damage  cases,  is 
increasing  at  a  rate  not  appreciated,  either  by  your  body  or  the 
tax-payer  of  the  city  and  some  effort  should  be  made  to  minimize 
it."  The  City  Attorney  gives  a  comparison  of  the  number  of 
cases  pending  in  other  cities  to  show  the  conditions  existing  in 
Chicago. 


122  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

CASES    PENDING    FOR    PERSONAL    INJURIES    RECEIVED    FROM 
DEFECTIVE    SIDEWALKS 


Name  of  City. 

Number. 

St   Louis                                  - 

18 

Boston     -   -       - 

280 

Denver           ---                          --                       

18 

Cincinnati 

1  2O 

Minneapolis 

2C 

Milwaukee      - 

CO 

St   Paul 

27 

Louisville                                                      -                     - 

22 

Buffalo 

6l 

Total             ...       -                                           -     --     -- 

621 

Chicago                                 --  

1.^4. 

The  total  number  of  cases  pending  in  these  other  cities  does 
not  equal  half  of  those  pending  in  Chicago. 

The  City  Attorney  only  presents  one  side  of  this  question — 
the  cost  in  damages  to  the  city.  The  cost  in  human  life  and  in 
serious  physical  injuries  is  not  mentioned.  Lives  are  endangered 
every  day  and  night  by  rotten  boards  and  yawning  holes  in  these 
wooden  sidewalks.  There  are  4,200.81  miles  of  wooden  sidewalks 
in  Chicago.*  On  the  basis  of  the  investigation  in  District  i, 
therefore,  there  would  be  1,596  miles  of  defective  wooden  side- 
walks in  Chicago — 1,596  miles  of  dangerous  walks  which  may  at 
any  moment  select  for  a  victim  any  one  of  thousands  of  people 
going  to  work  before  dawn  or  returning  after  dark.  A  playing 
child  may  slip  through.  The  woman  bringing  home  on  her  head 
a  bundle  of  sweat-shop  clothing,  or  a  sack  of  coal,  may  fall 
through  a  rotten  plank  and  suffer  in  consequence  serious  and 
painful  injuries.  The  costs  to  these  people  should  be  considered. 
It  is  criminal  for  Chicago  to  continue  this  neglect,  even  if  it  has 
millions  with  which  to  pay  damages.  The  cost  to  the  city  is  a 
small  matter  in  comparison  to  the  cost  in  human  suffering. 

*  See  Report  of  Department  of  Public  Works,  1898,  page  n. 


124  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

FILTHY   VACANT   LOTS,    YARDS,    COURTS,    AND    PASSAGES 

Section  4.  In  the  absence  of  inspection  and  of  enforcement 
of  sanitary  laws,  accumulations  of  filth,  house  refuse,  dead  ani- 
mals, decomposing  vegetable  matter,  and  general  litter  upon 
vacant  spaces  become  serious  in  poor  and  overcrowded  neigh- 
borhoods. The  lack  of  any  system  of  adequate  provision  for 
the  disposal,  and  a  regular  and  frequent  removal,  of  garbage, 
coupled  with  the  ever  present  tendency  in  overcrowded  tenements 
to  dump  rubbish  upon  the  nearest  available  open  space,  seriously 
aggravates  what  in  the  better  parts  of  the  city  is  little  more  than 
ordinary  neglect.  The  landlords  are  to  blame  also.  And  the 
city  apparently  neither  holds  them  responsible  for  furnishing 
garbage  receptacles,  nor  for  the  uncleanliness  of  vacant  lots, 
courts,  or  passages.  Noisome  and  insanitary  conditions  in  the 
courts  of  tenement-houses,  against  which  some  of  the  tenants 
complain  bitterly,  are  permitted  to  exist  for  months  without 
abatement  by  the  city  authorities.  The  following  facts  were 
taken  from  the  report  to  this  Committee: 

In  District  i  the  vacant  lots  have  a  frontage  of  1,186  feet, 
and  an  area  of  about  three  acres.  They  are  distributed  over 
thirteen  blocks,  but  nine-tenths  of  the  area  is  found  in  the  north- 
ern part  between  Polk  and  Taylor.  This  is  on  the  edge  of  a 
factory  district.  South  of  Taylor  Street  an  occasional  twenty- 
five-foot  lot  is  vacant.  In  the  other  districts  no  statement  was 
taken  of  the  vacant  lots.  However,  in  District  2  there  are 
several  open  spaces,  ranging  from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  feet  in  frontage.  In  District  3  there  is  perhaps 
half  an  acre  in  vacant  lots.  Between  Polk  and  Ewing  is  a  large 
space  extending  from  street  to  street.  It  is  an  abandoned  fac- 
tory site,  six  feet  below  the  level  of  the  street.  Water  stands  in 
parts  of  it,  and  weeds  flourish,  but  for  all  that  it  serves  as  a  base- 
ball ground  for  small  boys.  At  the  corner  of  Polk  and  Jefferson 
streets  is  a  large  lot  covered  with  old  wagons,  garbage,  rubbish, 
and  manure.  At  the  corner  of  Polk  and  Canal  is  a  lot  twelve  to 
fifteen  feet  below  the  street  level.  Stagnant  water  and  decaying 
matter  make  it  most  unsightly  and  foul.  On  Ewing  Street  a 
vacant  lot  is  covered  with  garbage,  manure,  and  rubbish.  In  a 
lot  on  O'Brien  Street,  where  an  old  house  was  recently  torn 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  125 

down,  children  were  playing  about  some  abandoned  cesspools. 
On  Blue  Island  Avenue,  in  vacant  lots  below  street  level,  ducks 
disport  themselves  in  a  large  mud-puddle.  Not  far  away  another 
lot  is  covered  partially  by  water  with  a  green  scum,  and  in  part 
by  all  sorts  of  rubbish.  This  is  the  condition  of  vacant  lots. 
They  are  inexcusably  ugly  and  ill-smelling. 

Vacant  lots  are  not  peculiar  in  their  neglected  condition. 
Yards  also  are  often  permitted  to  become  extremely  insanitary. 
By  crowding  houses  upon  the  lots  very  little  space  is  left  in  the 
yards.  These  small  bits  of  earth  are  often  low  and  damp,  with 
no  drainage  to  the  sewer.  The  privy  vaults,  manure,  and  gar- 
bage accumulations,  and  a  general  condition  of  filth  make  these 
open  spaces  offensive  in  odor  and  no  doubt  dangerous  to  health. 
The  enumerators'  comments  run  as  follows: 

Ashland  Avenue. — "Garbage  and  refuse  were  scattered  along 
the  passageway." 

Dixon  Street. — "Rubbish  thrown  under  the  sidewalk." 
Holt  Street. — "Two  dirty  and  insanitary  yards  the  only  ones 
in  the  block. " 

Noble  Street. — "Yard  very  dirty,  rubbish  all  about." 
Dixon   Street. — "No    sewer    to    hydrant,    stagnant    water    in 
yard." 

Blue  Island  Avenue. — "Filthy  yards,  full  of  junk  and  boxes." 
"Yard  filthy,  chickens  kept."  "Dreadful  conditions  of  yards, 
garbage  thrown  in  a  heap." 

Throop  Street. — "Yard  very  wet,  undrained.  "      "Yard  very 
filthy."      "All  uncovered  space  in  yard  strewn  with  garbage." 
Allport  Street. — "Yard  very  wet,  bad  smelling." 
The  worst  conditions  are  in  District  i.      A  great  many  yards 
were  found  in  a  filthy  condition. 

Polk  Street. — "Garbage  thrown  directly  into  the  yard  and 
left  to  decay." 

Ewing  Street. — "Lots  strewn  with  garbage  and  rubbish." 
Ewing   Street. — "Trash    and   old   wood    with    rotten    paving 
blocks  fill  the  yard."      (This  occurs  many  times.) 

Taylor  Street. — "Lots  filthy,  strewn  with  manure." 
Taylor  Street. — "Vegetables  and  fruit  rotting  in  the  yard. " 
Taylor  Street. — "Yard   in   filthy  condition,    chicken-coop   in 
wretched  state,  fruit  and  vegetables  at  the  door." 


126  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Forquer  Street. — "Filth  and  rubbish  all  over  yard." 

Jefferson  Street.  — -"Rear  yard  very  bad,  a  menace  to  health." 

Liberty  Street. — "A  foot  or  two  of  rubbish  between  this 
house  and  next."  "Smell  terrible,  neighbors  complain." 

Maxwell  Street. — "A  horribly  dirty  place.  Back  yard  littered 
with  broken  furniture  and  rubbish.  Manure  piled  three  or  four 
feet  high  in  yard." 

There  is  no  need  of  extended  mention  of  the  evils  of  these 
conditions.  The  lack  of  garbage  removal  and  accommodations, 
combined  with  the  inactivity  of  the  Health  Department,  permits 
these  evils  to  assume  importance  as  serious  insanitary  conditions. 

Courts  and  passages  suffer  from  the  same  neglect  that  make 
yards  offensive  and  insanitary.  These  spaces  between  buildings 
are  often  dark  and  sometimes  out  of  public  sight.  The  courts 
especially  become  the  dumping-place  for  cans,  decayed  vege- 
tables, and  house  refuse  of  all  sorts.  The  passageways  are  most 
always  below  the  street  level;  the  lack  of  sunshine  and  the  water 
from  the  roofs  of  houses  and  sidewalks  make  them  damp.  The 
report  says:  "These  open  spaces  are  important  as  means  of 
light  and  ventilation  to  the  rooms  adjoining.  But  a  narrow  court 
which  does  not  have  an  unobstructed  opening  to  the  south  rarely 
receives  sunlight  to  keep  it  dry  and  wholesome.  This  is  also 
true  of  passageways,  except  that  when  they  are  narrow  they  do 
not  get  sunlight  enough  to  make  them  even  sanitary.  In  scores 
of  cases  the  space  between  houses,  when  not  used  as  a  passage, 
was  found  filled  with  rotting  stuff,  and  the  passageways  were 
often  filled  with  all  kinds  of  garbage.  The  passageways  to  the 
rear  apartments  are  nearly  always  below  street  level.  They  usu- 
ally are  from  two  and  a  half  to  four  feet  wide ;  they  are  damp 
and  receive  very  little  sunlight  in  the  course  of  the  day.  When 
the  houses  face  east  and  west,  which  is  general  in  Districts  2 
and  3,  the  sun  never  enters  the  passageways.  They  seem  espe- 
cially constructed  to  be  microbe  incubators. 

"Despite  these  harmful  conditions,  they  are  the  only  play- 
grounds of  the  younger  children  who  must  be  kept  close  to  the 
mother.  Sometimes  the  older  children  may  be  seen  rolling  the 
baby  back  and  forth  to  get  a  bit  of  air  in  these  damp  and  sun- 
less places.  On  diagram,  page  81,  in  the  rear  of  the  house  at 
No.  7,  is  shown  the  plan  of  a  court  which  is  somewhat  better 


128  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

than  the  average.  It  is  "L"  shaped,  and  equal  to  about  twenty 
feet  square.  It  is  four  feet  below  the  level  of  the  alley,  and  is 
much  shaded  by  surrounding  three  and  four  story  buildings.  It 
gets  the  dripping  water  from  the  roof  and  is  constantly  damp. 
The  main  exit  to  the  alley  gets  the  sunlight  about  one  hour  at 
midday,  and  a  photograph  printed  on  page  35  was  taken  at  that 
time.  The  main  portion  is  always  sunless.  A  considerable  part 
of  the  place  is  obstructed  by  platforms  and  steps.  One  hundred 
and  four  people  live  in  the  four  houses  for  which  this  space  serves 
as  yard,  and  forty-six  children  have  no  playground  excepting  the 
street,  the  alley,  or  this  court." 

Locke  Worthington  says,  in  his  book,  that  "there  is  per- 
haps nothing  in  the  management  of  a  house  which  may  be  a 
greater  nuisance  than  the  disposal  of  its  refuse,  if  the  tenants  are 
sloven  and  careless,  and  the  local  authorities  corrupt  or  negli- 
gent."  *  And  indeed  the  worst  of  the  evils  in  the  vacant  spaces 
are  a  part  of  the  garbage  question.  We  have  laws  which  prohibit 
these  conditions,  but  they  are  rarely  enforced.  There  is  prob- 
ably no  other  city  approximating  the  size  of  Chicago,  in  this 
country  or  abroad,  which  has  as  many  neglected  sanitary  con- 
ditions associated  with  its  tenement-house  problem. 

OFFENSIVE    STABLES    AND    MANURE    BOXES 

Section  5.  There  is  a  surprising  number  of  stables  in  the 
three  districts.  In  District  i  there  are  only  one  hundred  more 
rear  houses  than  there  are  stables.  Altogether  there  were  537  of 
the  latter;  1,443  horses  were  counted.  Four  or  five  hundred 
were  owned  by  large  factories  and  transfer  companies;  probably 
a  thousand  were  owned  by  the  people  themselves.  As  before 
mentioned,  the  Inner  Belt  is  a  convenient  dwelling-place  for  ped- 
dlers and  expressmen,  and  it  is  usual  for  each  one  to  have  at 
least  one  horse. 

Peddling  vegetables  and  fruit  is  not  a  very  lucrative  profes- 
sion, and  many  peddlers  can  earn  barely  enough  to  pay  rents  and 
buy  food.  Consequently  the  worst  old  shacks,  dilapidated  tene- 
ments, and  damp  basements  are  used  for  stabling  purposes. 
Unmarried  Greeks  frequently  share  their  own  rooms  with  their 

*See  "Dwellings  of  the  People,"  page  114. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


129 


horses;  and  Italians  often  stable  them  on  the  lower  or  basement 
floor  of  their  tenements.* 

The  following  figures  give  a  complete  statement  of  the  num- 
ber of  horses,  stables,  and  manure  boxes,  and  a  classification  of 
their  condition. 


STATISTICS  OF  STABLES  AND  HORSES 


Dist.  i. 
N.  of 
i2th. 

Dist.  i. 
S.  of 
i2th. 

Dist.  2. 

Djst.  3. 

Total. 

Occupied  stables     --     

i6d 

160 

1  08 

los 

£-17 

Vacant  stables                     -           -- 

17 

23 

1  1 

24. 

7; 

Horses 

W2 

566 

2O2 

17-3 

I  dd^ 

No  blocks  with  less  than  10  horses 

7 

2 

2 

2o 

No  blocks  with  11  to  25  horses 

7 

7 

A 

A 

22 

No  blocks  with  26  to  50  horses 

7 

e 

•1 

A 

IO 

No.  blocks  with  more  than  50  horses  

I 

i 

2 

Condition  of  stabtes: 

Good 16  percent. 

Fair 33  per  cent. 

Bad —51  per  cent. 

*See  photographs. 


130 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


Condition  of  manure  boxes: 

Good 8  percent. 

Fair -.34  per  cent 

Bad 58  per  cent 


CONDITION    OF   STABLES   AND    MANURE    BOXES 
PERCENTAGES    IN    THREE    SPECIFIED    CLASSES    OF    EACH 


Stables. 


34$ 


Manure 
Boxes. 


Good.      Fair. 


Bad. 


Many  facts  in  the  table  will  interest  students  only.  The 
reports,  however,  on  the  conditions  of  the  stables  should  interest 
every  one.  One-half  of  the  stables  and  manure  boxes  were  con- 
sidered in  a  bad  condition.  The  comments  further  on  will  show 
what  the  term  "in  a  bad  condition"  means. 

Nearly  all  the  manure  boxes  are  outside  of  the  stables.  Only 
thirty  out  of  the  total  of  478  reported  on  in  this  regard  are 
inside.  They  line  the  alleys,  in  some  places  making  them  almost 
impassable.  A  photograph  taken  in  the  Seventh  Ward,  near 
Maxwell  Street,  shows  an  alley  two  hundred  feet  long,  in  which 
there  are  twelve  manure  boxes,  nearly  all  overflowing.  It  also 
shows  a  number  of  garbage  boxes  with  their  refuse  scattered  over 
the  alley.  Manure  piles,  no  part  of  which  had  been  removed  for 
a  year  or  two,  were  found  after  the  stables  had  been  removed. 
Sometimes  there  is  no  box  and  the  alley  serves  the  need.  The 
following  comments  of  enumerators  show  the  extremely  insani- 
tary conditions  which  exist: 

Polk  Street. — "Cellar  and  first  floor  used  for  stables." 

Twelfth  Street. — "Stable  complained  of  as  the  worst  in 
America."  "Three  cows  kept  in  basement  of  dilapidated 
house."  "Three  cows  and  four  horses  kept  in  stable;  shocking 
condition. " 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  131 

Thirteenth  Street. — "Stable  in  basement,  four  horses." 

Halsted  Street. — "Stable  built  up  next  to  house,  and  contains 
five  horses;  bad  conditions  for  family  on  second  floor." 

Union  Street. — "Bitter  complaints  by  the  neighbors  of  the 
insanitary  condition  of  the  stable;  two  horses  are  kept  in  it,  one 
in  the  basement." 

O'Brien  Street. — "Conditions  are  bad  in  rear  house,  which  is 
a  cottage  and  stable  combined."  Another:  "Keep  two  cows  and 
sell  milk.  The  stable  is  very  offensive  to  the  neighbors." 


Maxwell  Street. — "Stable  under  rear  house,  two  horses. 
Seven  people  live  above  it,  and  there  is  much  complaint  of  the 
smell.  Walls  dirty,  alley  littered." 

Liberty  Street. — "Much  complaint  of  stable  on  Maxwell  where 
five  horses  are  kept.  Smell  is  so  bad  that  no  windows  can  be 
opened." 

Next  in  importance  to  the  condition  and  location  of  the  stable 
is  the  proper  removal  of  manure.  The  utter  neglect  of  regular 
removal  is  shown  in  the  following  comments: 

Taylor  Street. — "Manure  pile  has  been  in  yard  over  a  year. 
Bitter  complaints." 

Taylor  Street. — "Manure  heaps  from  a  large  barn,  and  long 
neglected  waste  fill  the  alley." 

Taylor  Street. — "Manure  emptied  in  yard." 


132  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Twelfth  Street. — "Manure  still  remains  in  alley  after  the  shed 
has  ceased  to  be  used  as  a  stable." 

Liberty  Street. — "Manure  seven  feet  high  in  yard." 

Fourteenth  Street. — "Floor  of  stable  covered  two  feet  deep 
with  manure. " 

Blue  Island  Avenue. — "Manure-box  bottom  is  broken  out  and 
manure  falls  to  yard  ten  feet  below.  Yard  wet  and  dirty." 

Noble  Street. — "Two  horses  kept  in  basement  of  front  house, 
causing  disagreeable  odors.  Manure  is  thrown  directly  into  the 
alley.  Neighbors  cannot  leave  windows  open  day  or  night 
because  of  noise  and  stench." 

The  above  comments  show  how  great  a  nuisance  these  offen- 
sive conditions  are  to  the  people  in  the  neighboring  tenement- 
houses.  The  fumes  rise  from  fermenting  manure  and  enter  the 
rooms  of  the  rear  tenements.  Rats,  insects,  and  flies  swarm 
about  these  accumulations  of  filth  and  become  a  source  of  great 
offense  to  tenants  in  the  neighborhood.  Physicians  have  testi- 
fied* that  certain  diseases  are  more  prevalent  in  those  tenement- 
houses  of  which  portions  are  used  as  stables. 

The  conditions  here  show  how  backward,  in  some  respects, 
the  City  of  Chicago  is.  The  reports  on  tenement-houses  in  other 
cities  do  not  include  studies  of  these  conditions,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  most  other  large  cities  would  not  permit  to  exist  to 
such  an  extent  these  horrible  and  filthy  insanitary  conditions. 
In  New  York,  under  the  law,  no  part  of  a  tenement-house 
can  be  used  as  a  stable,  and  no  stable  can  remain  on  a  lot 
where  it  is  proposed  to  erect  a  tenement-house.  This  is  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  practice  here,  for  horses  are  permitted 
even  in  the  basements  of  cottages  and  tenements  where  often 
neither  drainage  nor  other  sanitary  conditions  are  possible.  Even 
our  own  ordinance,  demanding  that,  wherever  two  horses  are 
kept,  the  manure  shall  be  removed  twice  a  week,  is  ignored.  As 
a  result  of  poor  laws  and  the  lack  of  enforcement  of  those 
already  existing,  the  most  shocking  conditions  are  prevalent  in 
these  districts. 

*See  Report  of  New  York  Tenement-House  Commission,  1894,  page  482. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


'33 


THE    NEGLECT    OF    GARBAGE 

Section  6.  The  conditions  of  filth-strewn  alleys,  of  courts  and 
yards  littered  with  rubbish,  of  ill-smelling  stables  and  manure 
bo-xes  find  their  climax  and  in  part  their  cause  in  the  accumula- 
tions of  garbage.  The  latter  is  a  most  important  question  of 
municipal  sanitation.  It  is  one  of  several  problems  intimately 


connected  with  the  sanitary  conditions  of  overcrowded  tenement- 
houses.  The  cleaning  of  streets  and  alleys,  the  control  and 
inspection  of  tenement  and  lodging  houses,  the  care  of  uncovered 
spaces  in  overcrowded  areas,  and  the  systematic  collection  and 
profitable  disposal  of  garbage  by  the  municipality  are  problems 
of  great  importance.  The  older  cities  have  spent  large  sums  of 
money  in  organizing  and  revolutionizing  their  village  customs 
and  habits  in  these  matters,  and  in  adapting  the  scientific  and 
business-like  methods  of  certain  foreign  cities  to  their  own  needs. 
The  economic  sides  of  the  question  need  not  be  dealt  with 
here,  but  a  few  words  will  be  said  about  the  importance  of  sys- 


'34 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


tematic  disposal  and  careful  and  regular  municipal  collection. 
First,  ashes  should  not  be  mixed  with  animal  and  vegetable  mat- 
ter; separate  receptacles  should  be  provided  for  different  kinds 
of  house  refuse  and  the  tenant  should  be  fined  when  he  fails  to 
use  the  proper  one.  Landlords  should  be  compelled  to  furnish 
receptacles  proportionate  in  size  to  the  number  of  persons  housed 
upon  the  lot.  The  boxes  and  iron  pails  should  be  well  made  and 
kept  well  repaired,  so  that  they  can  be  thoroughly  cleaned  when 
necessary.  In  a  time  of  epidemic  this  is  particularly  necessary. 
The  collections  should  be  daily  and  before  the  middle  of  the 
morning.  Laws  containing  provisions  similar  to  these  are  on  the 
statute  books  of  almost  all  cities.  With  one  or  two  exceptions, 
these  provisions  are  already  in  the  sanitary  code  of  Chicago. 
The  following  table  and  notes  from  the  report  will  show  how 
seldom,  if  ever,  these  laws  are  enforced: 


STATISTICS    IN    REGARD    TO    GARBAGE  BOXES  AND    DISPOSAL 

OF    GARBAGE 


Material  of  Boxes. 

Dist.  i 
N.  of 
i2th. 

Dist.  i 

S.  of 
I2th. 

Dist.  2. 

Dist.  3. 

Total. 

Wood  . 

586 

4.71 

AAQ 

247 

I  7E;  ?. 

Metal 

7 

7 

I 

I 

»i/M 

16 

Use  neighbor's 

no 

60 

2/1 

r  c 

2^8 

No  box  -  -    -  

I  IT. 

uy 

TC6 

r/t 

•7.2 

*y> 

ore 

Condition  of  boxes: 
Sound                                  

27  C 

274. 

6: 

B* 

Broken                      -                        -  - 

on? 

Io7 

T»  C 

I7C 

I  064 

Partly  filled.  ...  - 

5OO 

o  IQ 

r 

11OA. 

24O 

I  4^.2 

Overflowing 

AA 

22 

7 

7 

80 

Location: 
Alley      .-                                   _    -     - 

-30  g 

TCJ. 

A~\r\ 

2^2 

i  16^ 

Sidewalk 

2IO 

012 

2o 

cei 

Yard           ...          -       

-11 

7 

I 

I 

4.O 

House                                  -   -- 

o 

2 

c 

Collection  : 
Three  to  six  times  a  week    

84 

6? 

IO 

4Q 

2IO 

One  or  two  times  a  week  

71 

67 

71 

I  IO 

•30T 

Less  than  once  a  week 

6 

21 

7 

7 

41 

Not  known  or  renorted    _ 

421 

124 

T.C.-2 

nn 

T.lnn 

These  statistics  show  that  in  the  districts  examined  there  are 
1,769  garbage  boxes,  of  which  only  sixteen  are  metal  and  the  others 
are  all  of  wood.  This  is  a  little  more  than  one-half  the  houses. 


136  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

One  box  is  nearly  always  used  in  common  by  a  front  and  a  rear 
house.  In  238  cases  where  there  was  no  box  on  the  lot  it  was 
reported  that  the  tenants  used  one  near  by.  In  the  355  cases  no 
garbage  box  at  all  was  found.  The  absence  was  accounted  for 
by  some  of  the  comments  to  be  quoted  later;  1,064,  °r  nearly 
two-thirds  of  those  reported,  were  broken.  This  means  usually 
that  the  cover  was  off,  and  the  contents  exposed.  But  not  infre- 
quently the  box  has  fallen  to  pieces  and  is  utterly  useless. 

The  locations  of  the  garbage  boxes  in  1,659  cases  were  reported 
as  follows:  1,163  were  in  the  alley;  551,  or  33  per  cent  of  all, 
were  on  the  sidewalk ;  40  were  in  yards,  and  5  were  in  the  house. 
The  garbage  box  on  the  sidewalk  is  seldom  seen  in  Districts  2 
and  3,  but  one-half  of  all  the  garbage  boxes  in  District  i  are  on 
the  sidewalks.  Especially  in  those  blocks  where  there  is  no  alley 
it  is  customary  for  the  boxes  to  be  placed  on  the  sidewalks.  For 
this  reason  Polk,  Ewing,  the  north  side  of  Forquer,  parts  of  the 
Twelfth  Place,  O'Brien,  Thirteenth,  Maxwell,  Liberty,  and  Four- 
teenth streets  are  lined  with  garbage  boxes.  It  is  impossible  to 
describe  adequately  the  sidewalk  garbage  box.  If  regularly 
cleaned  it  is  bad  enough,  but  if  the  contents  stand  for  long  peri- 
ods, or  only  a  few  shovelfuls  at  the  top  are  removed,  its  condition 
is  always  foul.  Its  offensive  odor,  its  ugliness  and  filthiness,  may 
be  only  momentarily  disgusting  to  the  passer-by,  but  the  residents 
must  suffer  it  every  hour  in  the  day.  If  it  has  a  top,  the  children 
sometimes  use  it  for  a  play-house  by  day.  On  hot  nights  it  is 
common  to  see  parents  escape  from  their  stifling  houses,  and 
seek  slumber  and  fresh  air,  stretched  out  over  its  festering  con- 
tents. 

Five  garbage  boxes  were  kept  in  the  houses.  In  many  cases 
garbage  was  dumped  on  porches  and  in  courts  and  yards.  A 
large  brick  tenement  on  Polk,  having  been  built  without  proper 
provision  for  garbage  disposal,  has  several  boxes  and  barrels 
standing  at  the  door  of  a  central  court.  For  over  one  hundred 
people  in  a  four-story  tenement,  covering  almost  all  of  the  lot, 
this  is  the  only  provision  for  the  disposal  of  house  refuse. 

Ten  hundred  and  sixty-four  garbage  boxes  were  reported  in 
a  broken  condition,  and  eighty  were  reported  in  an  overflowing 
condition.  Detailed  information  is  given  in  the  following  com- 
ments: 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


'37 


Poik  Street. — "The  box  is  broken  and  garbage  scattered  half 
way  across  the  sidewalk." 

Alley  between  Dixon  and  Holt. — "Garbage  boxes  all  broken 
but  one." 

Ewing  Street. — "Garbage  box  thrown  into  the  street;  land- 
lord will  not  furnish  a  box." 


Dekoven  Street. — "No  box,  a  pile  of  garbage.  Slops  thrown 
out  of  window." 

Blue  Island  Avenue. — "As  much  garbage  outside  as  inside  of 
box." 

Forquer  Street. — "Garbage  thrown  into  yard  and  street." 
"Garbage  thrown  into  yard."  "Thrown  directly  from  windows 
into  alley." 

Twelfth  Place. — "Tenants  throw  garbage  into  narrow  space 
between  houses,  causing  a  bad  stench." 

Maxwell  Street. — "Garbage  piled  in  hall ;  the  smell  is  fearful.  " 


138  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Blue  Island  Avenue. — "Garbage  mostly  thrown  on  loose  heap 
in  alley;  part  dries  and  blows  broadcast." 

Blue  Island  Avenue. — "Landlord  refuses  to  supply  garbage 
box,  even  after  order  of  Board  of  Health." 

Several  of  the  comments  refer  to  landlords  who  refuse  to  fur- 
nish adequate  garbage  receptacles.  A  single  garbage  box  is  not 
sufficient  fora  large  tenement;  but  in  the  following  table  the 
reader  will  see  there  is  an  average,  in  some  blocks,  of  only  one 
box  to  three  houses.  Hundreds  of  tenants  have  no  proper  con- 
veniences in  which  to  empty  their  garbage. 


Block  Number. 

Number  of  Garbage 
Boxes. 

Number  Dwellings. 

Population. 

41 

26 

73 

917 

28 

9 

27 

375 

15 

25 

42 

679 

17 

52 

103 

1,501 

50 

77 

139 

2,327 

Differences  of  opinion  existed  even  in  the  same  neighborhood 
as  to  the  frequency  of  the  garbage  collection.  Answers  were 
given  in  591  cases,  and  in  thirty-eight  per  cent  fairly  satisfac- 
tory service  was  indicated  of  from  three  to  six  times  a  week,  in 
fifty-six  per  cent  of  the  cases  it  was  once  or  twice  a  week,  and 
in  six  per  cent  it  was  less  than  once  a  week.  The  collection  is 
evidently  better  in  Districts  2  and  3  than  in  District  i.  In  Dis- 
trict i  the  boxes  were  heaped  and  overflowing  in  sixty-six  cases, 
while  only  seven  such  cases  were  noticed  in  each  of  the  other 
districts.  In  many  cases  it  was  said  that  the  box  was  not  care- 
fully emptied.  A  few  shovelfuls,  it  was  reported,  were  taken 
from  the  top  to  keep  it  from  overflowing.  This  method  reduces 
the  number  of  overflowing  boxes,  but  it  permits  old  matter  to 
remain  in  the  bottom  of  the  boxes  for  long  periods.  The  ratio 
of  overflowing  boxes  to  all  boxes  was  as  one  to  thirteen  in  Dis- 
trict i,  as  one  to  fifty-three  in  District  2,  and  as  one  to  thirty- 
seven  in  District  3.  As  illustrations  of  the  complaints  made,  it 
was  said  on  Desplaines,  that  the  collector  "took  only  the  top 
layer";  on  Twelfth,  that  "the  garbage  man  will  not  empty  the 
box  unless  it  is  full,  so  it  smells  bad."  The  same  remark  was 
repeated  several  times.  On  Union,  it  was  said  that  "the  garbage 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  139 

box  has  a  horrible  stench  arising  from  it,  residents  say  it  has  not 
been  emptied  for  a  long  time";  on  Dekoven,  "that  the  garbage 
box  has  not  been  emptied  for  a  week ;  the  people  say  it  is  so 
horrible  they  want  to  get  away";  on  Thirteenth  Street  it  was 
said  several  times;  "That  people  are  driven  indoors  by  the  smell 
of  the  garbage  boxes;  they  can't  sit  on  the  steps."  A  number 
of  touching  appeals  were  made  to  our  enumerators  by  mothers 
anxious  for  the  welfare  of  their  children.  One  woman  said  that 


she  kept  her  children  in  the  house  nearly  all  the  time  because  of 
the  filth  all  around.  She  pleaded  with  tears  in  her  eyes  that  some- 
thing should  be  done  about  the  garbage  collection.  It  was  stated 
on  Twelfth  Street  that:  "A  private  garbage  collector  was  employed 
because  the  city  service  is  unsatisfactory." 

In  order  to  show  more  clearly  the  extremely  bad  conditions 
in  a  particular  portion  of  District  i,  the  number  and  situation  of 
fehe  privies  and  of  the  garbage  and  manure  boxes  which  were 
found  in  one  alley  and  a  portion  of  the  adjoining  alley  have  been 
placed  on  a  diagram.  The  location  of  the  twelve  privies  will  be 
seen.  Besides,  in  this  small  section  of  the  block,  there  are  four 
stables  and  four  manure  boxes  near  the  mouth  of  the  blind  alley. 


140 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 


Nearly  two  hundred  persons  live  in  the  neighboring  houses.  The 
photographs  printed  herewith  illustrate  the  abominable  conditions 
which  exist.  The  garbage  boxes  are  uncovered  and  the  contents 
strewn  over  the  alley.  The  alleys  are  unpaved  and  filth  of  all 
kinds  has  accumulated  in  large  quantities.  In  one  place  a  large 
pile  of  manure  and  trash  has  been  thrown  against  a  barn.  The 
children  shown  in  one  picture  live  in  a  house  of  which  the  old 
shed  is  the  rear  portion.  A  rear  house  of  two  stories  with  win- 
dows opening  upon  the  alley  is  shown  in  another  picture.  The 
air  of  the  people  living  in  this  rear  tenement  comes  from  this 
same  alley. 


SHED 


8# 


25# 


16# 


SHED 
P 


SHED 


SHED 


STABLE 


STA- 
BLE 


STA- 

BLE 


20#- 


DIAGRAM  SHOWING  THE  INSANITA] 

CC 

)NDITIO 

NS    IN   j 

\N    ALLEY 

15# 

PPPPPP 

0|0|0|0;0|0| 

PP 
lop 

PP 

m 

\ 

M  _ 


BLIND  ALLEY 


STABLE 

121 

* 

:EY 

G  —  Garbage  box. 

P— Privy. 

:|: — Number  of  persons. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  141 

There  could  hardly  be  a  better  illustration  of  the  accumulated 
evils  in  a  neglected  and  uncared-for  portion  of  Chicago.  All  the 
evils  mentioned  in  the  sections  on  "The  Neglect  of  Garbage" 
and  "Offensive  Stables  and  Manure  Boxes,"  were  found  com- 
bined in  this  small  portion  of  District  i.  The  utter  neglect  on 
the  part  of  the  municipal  authorities,  and  the  irresponsibility  of 
landlords,  is  shown  in  the  photographs  and  diagram. 


MISCELLANEOUS    OUTSIDE    INSANITARY    CONDITIONS 

Section  7.  Many  disagreeable  and  dangerous  conditions, 
which  have  not  been  spoken  of  elsewhere  in  this  chapter,  are 
classed  under  this  head.  For  a  city  possessing  sanitary  laws,  the 
conditions  are  extraordinary,  to  say  the  least.  A  few  of  the  com- 
ments of  the  enumerators  will  make  the  nuisances  which  result 
from  keeping  animals  in  and  about  tenement-houses  explain 
themselves.  The  enumerators'  comments: 

Forquer  Street. — "Chickens  kept  in  yards,  several  places." 
Taylor  Street. — "Seven  goats  in  back  yard." 
Union  Street. — "Ducks  and  chickens  in  yard." 
Jefferson  Street. — "Two  cows  and  chickens." 
Holt  Street. — "Hogs  run  loose  in  yard;  Pigeons  kept." 
Noble  Street. — "Chickens  and  ducks  in  yard,  bad  odor." 
Noble  Street. — "Odor  from  dog  kennels  where  two  big  dogs 
are  kept." 

Sixteenth  Street. — "Ducks  in  front  yard." 
Throop  Street. — "Keep  poultry  in  cellar,  great  odor." 
In   New  York  a  law  passed   in  1867,  and  one  in  Boston,  pro- 
hibits tht  "keeping  of  a  horse,  cow,  or  calf,  swine  or  pig,  sheep 
or  goat  in  a  tenement-house."  *     In  1897  the  Greater  New  York 
charter  forbids  the  keeping  of  such  animals  on  any  part  of  the 
premises  of  tenement-houses.*     In  1901  Chicago  still  retains  the 
village  custom. 

From  certain  businesses,  not  cleanly  to  begin  with,  accumu- 
late all  sorts  of  decaying  vegetable  and  animal  matter.  When  an 
enumerator  is  driven  to  call  an  odor  a  "terrific  smell"  in  order 
to  describe  it,  there  is  some  reason  for  alarm. 

*Veiller's  "Tenement-House  Legislation  in  New  York,  1852-1900," 
page  118. 


142  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Union  Street. — "Shop  and  fish  market;  smell  terrific." 

Jefferson  Street. — "Odor  of  butchers'  refuse  very  bad." 

Thirteenth  Street. — "Sidewalk  a  place  for  chickens  and  ducks ; 
fifteen  coops  in  front  of  house,  which  is  excessively  dirty  and 
dilapidated." 

Thirteenth  Street. — "Chickens  and  ducks  sold  here;  feathers 
flying  all  about  the  street." 

O'Brien  Street. — "Chicken-coops  on  sidewalk,  poultry  in  back 
of  yard;  very  offensive  to  the  neighbors." 

O'Brien  Street. — "  'Geese  right  under  the  window,'  says  the 
tenant.  'You  can't  sleep  nights  and  it  stinks.  If  you  sleep  in  a 
room  with  that  right  under  your  head  hollering  the  whole  night 
you  can't  stand  it.'  ' 

Maxwell  Street. — "Poultry  market  in  basement;  sidewalks 
with  feathers  and  half  covered  with  boxes  of  chickens." 

Maxwell  Street. — "Market  in  basement  horribly  dirty;  vile 
smell;  sidewalk  covered  with  corn  and  feathers." 

Jefferson  Street. — "Refuse  from  produce  store  dumped  into 
broken  catch-basin  in  back  yard,  and  into  privy  vault.  Neighbors 
complain  of  rotten  eggs  and  other  bad  smells  about  the  house." 

Rag  and  junk  shops  and  various  kinds  of  depots  for  refuse 
materials  abound  in  the  Italian  and  Jewish  quarters,  and  there 
are  a  few  in  the  Polish  district.  Most  of  these  shops  have  foul 
odors.  Rag-shops  particularly  are  dangerous  by  communicating 
disease.  They  should  be  prohibited  in  houses  where  people  live. 
Laws  in  other  cities  forbid  rags  to  be  stored  in  tenement-houses. 
The  comments  of  the  enumerators  on  shops  and  upon  other  con- 
ditions are  printed  herewith: 

Polk  Street. — "Rag-shops  litter  the  street  and  make  it  at 
times  almost  impassable. "  A 

Canal  Street. — "Many  back  yards  covered  with  musty  rags, 
old  sail-cloth  spread  out  to  dry.  Smell  penetrates  into  all  the 
living-rooms  about." 

Ewing  Street. — "Stumps  of  tobacco  spread  out  to  dry  in 
several  places." 

Twelfth  Street. — "Tenants  near  cap  factory  say  that  the  odor 
from  it  is  almost  unbearable  and  makes  them  sick." 

Canal  Street. — "Smoke  from  the  neighboring  factories  makes 
bad  light  and  air." 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  143 

It  will  be  possible  to  realize,  if  one  has  imagination,  how 
much  there  is  in  all  of  these  conditions  to  degrade  the  individual. 
Surrounded  by  foul  conditions,  the  people  almost  lose  their  desire 
for  cleanliness.  It  is  almost  impossible  for  an  individual  to  keep 
free  from  the  filth  of  the  streets  and  alleys,  the  yards,  courts,  and 
passageways.  The  protests  of  many  tenants,  compelled  to  live 
in  these  places,  are  evidence  enough  of  the  struggle  of  many 
weary  housekeepers  against  the  overwhelming  odds.  The  whole 
chapter  is  evidence  of  the  pressing  need  for  a  municipal  cleans- 
ing. 


CHAPTER  VII 

SOCIAL  PATHOLOGY,   DISEASES  AND  DEATHS 

THE  SOURCES  AND  VALUE  OF  THE  DATA 

Section  i.  The  most  serious  of  the  evils  which  result  from 
the  tenement-house  system  are  various  forms  of  individual  and 
social  degeneration.  Happily,  the  worst  conditions  in  Chicago 
are  of  recent  origin  and  consequently  those  fearful  results  which 
come  from  urban  populations  living  amid  surroundings  wherever 
most  insanitary  and  artificial,  are  not  as  conspicuously  present  in 
Chicago  as  in  certain  other  cities.  But  surely  no  one  will  doubt 
that  unless  active  preventive  work  is  soon  begun  this  city  will 
suffer  from  many  of  the  painful  experiences  of  older  cities. 
Extraordinary  sickness,  death,  pauperism,  intemperance,  and 
crime  are  universally  associated  with  bad  housing  conditions. 
Many  other  cities  have  been  benefited  by  special  studies  of  these 
evils  and  their  relation  to  insanitary  dwelling  places.  The  results 
of  these  investigations  are  the  severest  warning  which  the  older 
cities  may  furnish  the  newer  ones.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  in 
Chicago  no  studies  have  yet  been  made  showing  the  relation  of 
many  social  diseases  to  the  living  and  working  conditions  of  the 
people.  There  are  few  things  which  could  be  of  greater  value. 
The  Committee  recognized  this  fact,  but  in  drawing  the  line  some 
place,  it  seemed  best  to  make  the  first  inquiry  into  conditions, 
a  study  of  the  insanitary  and  dangerous  dwelling  places  them- 
selves. 

To  show  the  relation  of  housing  conditions  to  the  death  rate 
and  to  various  forms  of  social  degeneration  is  in  itself  a  separate 
and  very  difficult  undertaking.*  What  is  offered,  therefore,  is 
obtained  mainly  from  studies  made  elsewhere  and  is  given  merely 
to  show  the  recognized  relation  existing  between  dangerous 
housing  and  certain  forms  of  social  decay.  After  all,  the  results 
of  housing  conditions  elsewhere  must  be  very  much  the  same  as 

*  Report  of  the  New  York  Tenement-House  Commission,  1900,  page  72. 

144 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  H5 

those  here.  Pauperism,  crime,  disease,  etc.,  are  perhaps  increased 
by  conditions  here  in  less  degree  than  in  older  cities,  but  they 
are  fed  nevertheless  from  the  same  sources. 


POVERTY    AND    PAUPERISM    IN    THE   TENEMENTS 

Section  2.  The  cause  or  causes  of  poverty  in  particular  indi- 
viduals have  long  interested  students  in  economics  and  sociology. 
Philanthropic  associations  in  various  cities  have  also  collected 
much  data  on  the  subject.  A  few  years  ago,  with  a  few  impor- 
tant exceptions,  nearly  all  who  gave  thought  to  the  matter 
agreed  that  subjective  causes,  such  as  drink,  laziness,  extrava- 
gance, and  incapability  were  the  most  important.  The  testimony 
of  those  who  gave  alms  contributed  largely  to  this  idea.  More 
recently  even  charity  organizationists  have  broadened  their  views 
of  causes.  A  prominent  one,  Edward  T.  Divine,  says:  * 

"It  is  possible  that  in  the  analysis  of  the  causes  of  poverty, 
emphasis  has  been  placed  unduly  upon  personal  causes,  such  as 
intemperance,  shiftlessness,  and  inefficiency,  as  compared  with 
causes  that  lie  in  the  environment,  such  as  accident,  disease 
resulting  from  insanitary  surroundings,  and  death  of  bread-winner 
due  to  undermined  vitality.  Economists  have  duly  recognized 
the  effect  of  climate  upon  national  efficiency,  but  climate  in  the 
sense  in  which  it  affects  earning  capacity  is  not  simply  a  ques- 
tion of  latitude.  It  includes  rather  all  those  elements  of  the 
immediate  physical  environment  which  give  vigor,  elasticity, 
buoyancy,  and  recuperative  power.  It  does  its  work  at  night  when 
the  worker  is  asleep,  quite  as  much  as  when  he  is  employed.  That 
there  is  a  favorable  climate  in  Battery  Park  at  the  lower  end  of 
Manhattan  Island  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  evidence  that  the 
toilers  who  make  their  homes  in  New  York  City  are  its  benefici- 
aries. The  overcrowded,  dark,  ill-ventilated  tenements  of  New 
York  City  have  a  climate  less  favorable  than  that  of  any  other 
great  city.  Directly,  therefore,  in  their  influence  upon  the 
physical  well-being  of  human  beings  the  tenements  lessen  pro- 
ductive power  and  so  inevitably  increase  the  number  who  are 
unable  continuously  to  make  a  living. 

*"  Charities,"  weekly  of  the  New  York  Charity  Organization  Society, 
February  24,  1900,  page  3. 


146  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

"Their  indirect  effect  upon  the  standard  of  living  is  no  less 
marked.  One  who  lives  in  an  attractive  home  with  plenty  of 
light  and  air  and  with  pleasant  outlook  from  the  windows  will 
instinctively  improve  the  other  conditions  of  living,  will  work 
harder  to  provide  decent  furniture,  will  place  a  higher  estimate 
upon  all  the  decencies  and  comforts  of  life." 

In  accord  with  this  view  many  students  have  spoken  of  the 
influence  of  housing  in  causing  poverty.  Robert  Treat  Paine, 
several  years  ago,  wrote  that  he  considered  bad  housing  one  of  the 
four  most  important  causes  of  poverty.*  Sickness,  often  the  result 
of  insanitary  conditions,  causes  from  14. 6  per  cent  to  29.5  percent 
of  the  poverty  coming  under  the  observation  of  the  New  York, 
Buffalo,  Baltimore,  Boston,  and  Cincinnati  Charity  Organization 
Societies.  But  as  Dr.  Amos  G.  Warner  says:  "Sickness  is  more 
obvious  than  bad  sanitation."  j-  Diseased  appetites  and  under- 
vitalization  generated  in  the  tenements,  cause  most  degrading 
forms  of  poverty.  Among  other  causes  are  now  classed  bad 
climatic  conditions,  defective  sanitation,  and  degrading  associ- 
ations and  surroundings.  The  overcrowding,  foul  air,  dark 
rooms,  and  insanitary  housing  conditions,  shown  in  the  previous 
chapters,  are  the  handicaps  in  the  competitive  struggle  which 
drag  many  families  into  a  condition  of  painful  and  degrading 
dependence  upon  public  charity.  Insanitary  housing  conditions 
reduce  industrial  efficiency,  promote  exhaustion  and  weariness, 
and  are  potent  causes  in  the  growth  of  a  large,  dependent 
class. 

Pauperism  is  a  different  thing  from  poverty.  A  pauper  legally 
is  he  who  receives  public  aid.  Charity  Organizationists  con- 
sider a  pauper  one  who  has  a  craven,  dependent  spirit,  and 
willingly  receives  repeated  and  perhaps  unnecessary  aid.  A 
pauper,  in  the  legal  sense,  may  be  one  constrained  because  of 
illness  or  other  reason  to  accept  relief.  But  he  will  not  be  a 
pauper  in  the  sense  of  the  Charity  Organizationist  providing  he 
retains  his  independence  and  asserts  it  as  soon  as  possible.  In 
the  sense  of  the  latter  especially  the  tenement  produces  paupers. 
It  destroys  the  spirit  of  independence. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  mass  of  tenements  in  these  dis- 

*  Pamphlet,  "Causes  of  Poverty." 

t  Warner's  American  Charities,  pages  29  and  34. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  147 

tricts  are  in  such  condition  as  to  be  an  active  cause  of  poverty 
or  pauperism.  Occasionally,  however,  in.  tenements  broken, 
dilapidated,  and  devoid  of  almost  everything  wholesome,  with 
dirt  and  evident  overcrowding,  you  will  find  all  the  condi- 
tions which  make  paupers  and  beggars.  Even  if  insanitary 
conditions  did  not  weaken  the  families,  the  evil  associations 
would  do  so.  For  the  pauper  attitudes  and  customs  are 
contagious.  A  single  pauper  family  in  a  tenement  may  be 
looked  down  upon.  But  two  or  three  such  families  set  the 
standard  and  the  getting  of  free  coal  and  groceries  is  emu- 
lated. The  Bureau  of  Charities  knows  of  houses  in  which  every 
family  is  pauperized.  Houses  are  known  from  which  paupers 
have  been  evicted;  but  the  new  families  which  move  in  sooner 
or  later  apply  for  relief.  Certain  tenements  have  housed  scores 
of  families  dependent  on  charity.  The  contagion  is  interestingly 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  people  in  certain  tenements  all  receive 
aid  from  the  county,  while  in  a  neighboring  house  the  inhabitants 
have  applied  only  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities.  In  this  way  pauper- 
ism sometimes  spreads  throughout  an  entire  tenement.  Self-sup- 
porting families  often  apply  unnecessarily  for  aid  simply  because 
others  in  the  same  house  receive  assistance.  Begging  children 
frequently  encourage  their  playmates  to  beg  with  them.  It  is 
this  moral  degeneration,  going  on  in  the  bad  tenements,  which 
presents  a  worse  aspect  than  even  sickness. 

INTEMPERANCE   AND    BAD    HOUSING 

Section  3.  Intemperance  is  caused  by  bad  housing  in  very 
much  the  same  way  as  pauperism.  The  saloon  is  attractive.  It 
is  warm  in  winter;  it  is  cool  in  summer.  It  is  clean,  not  over- 
crowded, and  is  well  lighted.  It  is  in  marked  contrast  to  small 
rooms  overcrowded,  badly  ventilated  and  lighted.  The  "home- 
less" tenement  causes  the  greatest  amount  of  intemperance. 
It  is  almost  unbearable  while  awake  to  stay  in  a  close  and 
disagreeable  apartment.  To  leave  the  home  is  to  go  to  the  only 
"common"  in  the  neighborhood.  For  the  saloon  preaches  the 
lesson  of  hospitality.  No  one  is  denied.  Intemperance,  there- 
fore, is  often  the  cost  of  a  cheerful  place  to  spend  the  even- 
ings. Recognizing  this,  a  legislative  committee  in  New  York, 


148  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

appointed  in  1866,  recommended  "the  prevention  of  drunken- 
ness by  providing  every  man  with  a  clean  and  comfortable 
home."  * 

The  men  who  live  in  the  poorest  tenements  are  usually  those 
who  do  the  hardest  and  most  disagreeable  kinds  of  work.  Stu- 
dents of  inebriety  have  given  attention  to  drunkenness  as  caused 
by  occupations,  but  the  work  of  a  man  consumes  only  a  part  of 
his  day  after  which  he  returns  to  his  home  with  his  strength  spent 
and  physically  depressed.  He  may  be  entertained  at  a  theater  if  he 
can  afford  it,  but  he  is  more  apt  to  seek  the  cheaper  attractions 
of  the  saloon,  not  always  because  his  house  is  small,  but  because 
it  is  unattractive.  Furthermore  the  demands  which  insanitary 
conditions  invariably  make  upon  the  human  body  cause  a  craving 
for  stimulants. 

Dr.  Norman  Kerr,  the  eminent  specialist  on  inebriety,  saysf 
that  "bad  hygienic  conditions,  ill-ventilated,  and  overcrowded 
dwellings,  from  the  vitiated  state  of  the  air  within  them, 
occasion  languor  and  sluggishness  which  leads  to  functional 
derangement  and  produces  a  profound  feeling  of  depression 
which,  in  many  cases,  predisposes  and  excites  to  intemperance 
in  alcohol.  This  is  purely  a  physical  process,  the  blood  is  imper- 
fectly aerated  and  charged  with  excess  of  carbonic  oxide. 
******* 

"CrothersJ  detected  the  influence  of  bad  sanitation,  unsuit- 
able food  and  surroundings  and  neglect  in  thirty-eight  out  of  five 
hundred  cases.  My  own  observation  in  England,  including  about 
three  per  cent  of  all  my  cases  among  the  very  poor,  puts  the  pro- 
portion at  about  twenty-five  per  cent." 

As  for  the  actual  drunkenness  which  exists  in  these  districts, 
it  is  very  hard  to  speak  accurately.  There  are  many  other  dis- 
tricts where  drunkenness  is  far  worse.  In  certain  vile  tenements 
here,  as  elsewhere,  almost  everybody,  men,  women,  and  older 
children,  are  habitual  drunkards.  Very  often  the  men  are  regu- 
larly at  work,  but  their  evenings  and  earnings  are  spent  in 
saloons.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  it  will  be  the  cheer  of  better 
homes  and  the  gymnastic  and  sporting  features  of  playgrounds, 

*  Reynold's  Housing  of  the  Poor,  page  22. 

t"  Inebriety,"  page  167. 

JDr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  Walnut  Lodge  Hospital,  Hartford,  Conn. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  149 

parks,  and  baths  which  will  one  day  take  the  place  of  the  warmth, 
light,  and  companionship  of  the  saloon. 


CRIME    IN    THE    HOMELESS,    YARDLESS    TENEMENTS 

Section  4.  Crime  also  is  caused  by  the  conditions  which  exist 
in  the  worst  tenement-houses.  Bad  hygienic  conditions,  evil 
associations,  and  the  collapse  of  home  life  produce  criminals. 
For  the  purpose  of  showing  how  bad  conditions  in  Chicago  really 
are,  these  districts  are  by  no  means  sufficiently  representative  of 
the  worst.  The  Italians,  Jews,  Poles,  and  Bohemians  here  lose 
to  criminality  many  children,  but  not  in  the  same  awful  way  as 
their  brothers  and  sisters  in  other  portions  of  the  city.  The 
effect  upon  these  peoples  in  the  First  Ward,  for  instance,  is  most 
pathetic.  Coming  to  us  ignorant,  but  honest  and  simple-minded, 
they  seek  out  the  tenements  whose  rents  have  been  lowered  by 
vicious  inhabitants.  Thousands  of  Jewish,  Polish,  and  Italian 
children  are  growing  up  in  tenements  inhabited  by  the  wretchedly 
poor,  by  drunkards,  criminals,  and  immoral  women.  Almost 
every  word  these  growing  children  hear,  and  every  action  they 
see,  corrupts  their  minds  and  destroys  forever  their  purity  of 
heart.  No  one  who  becomes  a  part  of  the  life  of  these  tene- 
ments can  escape  their  contaminated  and  corrupt  atmosphere. 
Let  any  one  who  doubts  look  into  the  demoralization  of  little 
children  going  on  along  South  Clark  Street  and  Custom  House 
Place,  Dearborn  Street,  Armour  and  Pacific  Avenues  from  Harri- 
son to  Twenty-second  Street.  It  was  to  just  such  places  as  these 
that  Dr.  Elisha  Harris  referred  when  he  said  before  the  New 
York  legislative  committee  of  1866:*  "The  younger  criminals 
seem  to  come  almost  exclusively  from  the  worst  tenement-house 
districts.  When  the  riot  occurred  in  1863,  every  hiding  place  and 
nursery  of  crime  discovered  itself  by  immediate  and  active  par- 
ticipation in  the  operations  of  the  mob.  Those  very  places  and 
domiciles,  and  all  that  are  like  them,  are  to-day  nurseries  of 
crime,  and  of  the  vices  and  disorderly  courses  which  lead  to 
crime.  By  far  the  largest  part,  eighty  per  cent  at  least,  of  the 
crimes  against  property  and  against  the  person  are  perpetrated 
by  individuals  who  have  either  lost  connection  with  home  life  or 

*  Jacob  Riis'  "  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,"  page  i. 


15°  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

never  had  any,  or  whose  homes  have  ceased  to  be  sufficiently 
separate,  decent,  and  desirable  to  afford  what  are  regarded  as 
ordinary  wholesome  influences  of  home  and  family."  Although 
written  in  1866  this  is  applicable  to  Chicago  to-day.  Every  state- 
ment could  be  sustained  by  actual  facts.  The  evil  associations 
in  the  worst  tenements  and  the  collapse  of  home  life  just  spoken 
of  are  reinforced  as  evil  influences  by  the  insanitary  conditions. 
For,  as  Dr.  Frederick  H.  Wines  says,  in  his  recent  book:*  "In- 
sanitary conditions,  especially  in  the  most  crowded  centers  of 
population,  are  a  cause  of  crime,  because  they  weaken  the  vital- 
ity of  those  who  might  otherwise  successfully  contend  against 
these  criminal  tendencies." 

In  the  districts  investigated  are  present  all  of  the  influences 
just  mentioned.  They  are  less  patent  perhaps  than  in  a  few  other 
places  in  Chicago.  For  instance,  the  collapse  of  home  life, 
because  freer  from  contact  with  vicious  surroundings,  is  here 
seldom  so  complete  as  one  finds  it  in  the  tenements  in  the 
First  Ward.  When  it  does  occur  it  is  mainly  due  to  industrial 
reasons.  For  example,  when  the  parents  are  both  employed,  or 
are  working  long  hours,  their  influence  upon  the  children  is  very 
slight,  and  they  are  left  to  range  at  will  in  the  tenement  and 
street.  This  freedom  can  hardly  be  good  for  them,  for  in  the 
crowded  quarters  of  the  yardless  tenement,  the  children  suffer 
manifold  restrictions  and  are  in  contact  with  conditions,  physical 
and  moral,  which  predispose  them  to  criminality.  Because  of 
these  and  other  reasons  the  juvenile  criminality  of  these  districts 
is  enormous.  Crowded  in  the  tenements  where  the  bedrooms  are 
small  and  often  dark;  where  the  living-room  is  also  a  kitchen, 
laundry,  and  often  a  garment-making  shop,  are  the  growing  chil- 
dren whose  bodies  cry  out  for  exercise  and  play.  They  are  often 
an  irritant  to  the  busy  mother  and  likely  as  not  the  object  of  her 
carping  and  scolding.  The  teeming  tenements  open  their  doors 
and  out  into  the  dark  passageways  and  courts,  over  the  foul  alleys 
and  upon  broken  sidewalks,  flow  ever-renewed  streams  of  playing 
children.  Under  the  feet  of  passing  horses,  under  the  wheels  of 
passing  street  cars,  jostled  about  by  the  pedestrian,  driven  on  by 
the  policeman,  threatened  by  the  grocer,  without  rights  any- 
where, they  annoy  everyone.  They  crowd  about  the  music  or 

*"  Punishment  and  Reformation,"  page  275. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  151 

drunken  brawls  in  the  saloons,  they  play  hide-and-seek  about  the 
garbage  boxes,  they  "shoot  craps"  in  the  alleys,  they  seek  always 
and  everywhere  activity,  movement,  life. 

This  using  the  main  open  spaces  as  playgrounds  is  critically 
called  "the  street  habit."  But  both  it  and  "the  gang  habit," 
are  at  first  perfectly  innocent  and  natural  results  of  the  crowded 
tenements  and  of  the  universal  necessity  for  play.  In  the  failure 
to  satisfy  this  need  of  the  children  with  properly  equipped  mu- 
nicipal playgrounds,  the  street  habit  and  the  gang  habit  become 
the  causes  of  a  large  percentage  of  juvenile  crime.  Sneak  thievery 
and  many  other  forms  of  vice  and  wickedness  run  their  course 
in  these  gangs  of  the  tenements  with  the  epidemic  power.  For 
to  contagious  disease  of  all  sorts  tenements  furnish  the  line  of 
the  least  resistance. 

Now  a  healthy  expression  in  play  of  the  mental,  physical,  and 
moral  faculties  of  the  children  of  the  tenements  is  at  present 
almost  impossible.  In  consequence  they  break  windows,  they 
ring  door-bells,  they  steal,  they  annoy  everyone,  they  especially 
rejoice  in  "making  it  warm"  for  the  unpopular  neighbor  who 
displeases  them.  Without  the  saving  influence  of  an  attractive 
home  or  playground  they  obtain  from  street  life  the  mental  and 
moral  food  they  require.  It  impresses  itself  upon  them  and  they 
reproduce  it  all;  gambling,  drinking,  the  vaudeville,  the  fighting, 
the  torch-light  processions,  whatever  they  see,  good  or  bad 
alike,  they  imitate. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  of  play  that  the  children  commit  most  of 
their  petty  crimes.  When  one  of  them  is  caught  stealing  he  is 
brought  to  the  juvenile  court.  He  is  taken  away  from  father 
and  motV.er  and  the  tenement  and  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School,  where  he  is  put  behind  iron  bars  and  uniformed  guards 
are  placed  over  him,  just  as  if  he  were  a  wild  animal.  And  this 
is  often  the  innocent  beginning  of  a  life  of  crime.  For  the  cause 
of  it  all  we  must  go  back  partly  at  least  to  the  overcrowded,  yard- 
less,  and  homeless  tenement.  The  boys  become  criminals  because 
it  can  almost  be  said  that  in  these  districts  the  only  things  to  do 
worthy  of  a  boy's  spirit  are  those  things  which  are  against  the 
law.  At  any  rate  the  victim  of  overcrowding  sees  little  differ- 
ence between  the  laws  which  prevent  him  from  "flipping"  on  and 
off  street  cars  or  playing  ball  in  the  streets,  and  those  which  pro- 


I52  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

hibit  truancy,  stealing,  etc.  He  does  see  that  whatever  depends 
upon  bravado,  which  all  boys  love,  is  looked  down  upon  by  the 
policeman.  The  causes  of  crime  are  many,  but  among  the  im- 
portant ones  are  the  evil  association  of  the  tenement,  the  bad 
sanitary  conditions,  the  collapse  of  home  life,  and  lastly,  the 
yardless  tenement  itself. 

SICKNESS    AND    INSANITARY    CONDITIONS 

Section  5.  It  is,  however,  in  sickness  and  death  that  the  tene- 
ment-house evil  exacts  its  chief  tribute  from  the  people.  Always 
and  everywhere  overcrowding,  bad  air,  dark  rooms,  and  other 
insanitary  conditions  cause  physical  breakdown.  The  "Testi- 
mony on  the  Evils  of  Overcrowding,"  Chapter  III.,  Section  i, 
need  not  be  repeated  here";  but  it  will  be  recalled.  The  intimacy 
of  the  people  of  tenement-houses  makes  the  spread  of  disease 
there  almost  unpreventable.  Not  necessarily  of  smallpox,  which 
receives  extraordinary  attention  from  the  Board  of  Health,  but  of 
tuberculosis,  scarlet  fever,  and  diseases  of  other  kinds. 

The  dread  contagion,  tuberculosis,  growing  so  fast  in  all  large 
cities,  is  in  particular  caused  and  fostered  by  the  tenement-house 
system.  The  relation  of  the  tenement  to  this  particular  disease, 
is  becoming  of  great  interest.  Dr.  S.  A.  Knopf,  before  the  New 
York  Tenement-House  Exhibition  of  1900,  in  a  very  instructive 
paper,  said :  * 

"If  I  should  be  asked  what  conditions  are  most  conducive  to 
the  propagation  of  tuberculosis  and  especially  pulmonary  con- 
sumption, I  would  have  to  reply,  the  conditions  that  prevail  in 
the  old-fashioned  tenement-houses  as  they  still  exist  by  the  thou- 
sand in  this  and  other  large  cities.  In  these  tenements  there  are 
not  only  a  far  greater  number  of  consumptives  than  in  the  same 
area  elsewhere,  but  the  proportion  is  actually  greater  per  number 
of  inhabitants.  Thus  they  not  only  contain  countless  centers  of 
infection  for  old  and  young,  and  multiple  foci  of  reinfection  for 
those  already  afflicted,  but  these  dwellings  with  their  bad  air, 
darkness,  and  filth  make  a  cure  of  the  disease  impossible  and  a 
lingering  death  for  all  those  infected  by  the  germ  of  tuberculosis 
a  certainty.  If  anyone  thinks  me  an  alarmist,  let  him  glance  at 

*  Pamphlet,  "Tuberculosis  in  the  Tenements,"  page  i. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  153 

the  charts  exhibited  in  this  building.  There  he  will  see  that 
there  are  houses  in  which  can  be  counted  as  many  as  twenty  con- 
secutive cases  of  tuberculosis  during  the  last  four  years.  This 
number  represents,  however,  only  the  cases  reported  to  the  Board 
of  Health.  Now,  you  must  not  think  for  a  moment  that  these 
represent  the  actual  number  of  cases  of  tuberculosis  existing  in 
that  particular  tenement.  They  are  only  the  ones  where  the  dis- 
ease had  so  far  advanced  that  medical  aid  became  imperative,  a 
physician  had  1o  be  called  in,  and  the  case  was  reported.  But 
how  many  of  the  moderately  advanced  cases  are  made  known  to 
either  physician  or  Board  of  Health?  I  venture  to  say  those  not 
reported  are  more  numerous  than  the  reported  ones.  They  con- 
stitute that  class  of  pulmonary  invalids  who  are  still  able  to  work, 
and  who  imagine  themselves  to  be  suffering  only  from  chronic 
bronchitis,  and  the  equally  large  number  of  children  suffering 
from  tubercular  manifestations  other  than  pulmonary.  To  the 
uninitiated  it  may  sound  like  a  paradox  when  I  say  that  the 
tubercular  invalid  who  is  still  up  and  about,  perhaps  supporting 
his  family,  is  often  the  greatest  danger  to  the  community,  to  his 
friends,  his  neighbors,  and  to  those  who  may  succeed  him  in  the 
tenement  he  lives  in.  It  is  this  class  of  consumptives,  which, 
from  either  ignorance  or  carelessness,  spread  their  disease  broad- 
cast by  depositing  their  infectious  sputum  everywhere  without 
any  regard  to  the  danger." 

But  aside  from  contagious  diseases,  the  insanitary  conditions 
of  tenement-house  life  cause  forms  of  debility  and  exhaustion. 
Lord  Shaftesbury  said,*  before  the  Lords  Committee  on  Housing 
that  "the  Board  of  Health  instituted  inquiries  in  the  low  neigh- 
borhoods to  see  what  was  the  amount  of  labor  lost  in  the  year, 
not  by  illness,  but  by  sheer  exhaustion  and  inability  to  do  work. 
It  was  found  that  upon  the  lowest  average  every  workman  or 
workwoman  lost  about  twenty  days  in  the  year  from  simple 
exhaustion,  and  the  wages  thus  lost  would  go  toward  paying  an 
increased  rent  for  a  better  house."  That  deterioration  in  health 
which  often  does  not  figure  in  the  death  rates  is  perhaps  the  most 
striking  result  of  bad  housing. 

From  the  purely  economic  point  of  view  the  cost  to  working 
people  of  insanitary  dwellings  is  enormous.  A  sick  rate  would 

*  Report  of  Lords  Committee  on  Housing,  page  4. 


154  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

be  far  more  accurate  than  a  death  rate  as  a  basis  upon  which  to 
judge  the  costs  to  the  people  of  the  tenement-house  system. 
Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould  says:*  "The  economic  value  of  sanitary 
reform  has  never  been  fully  appreciated.  The  loss  to  any  nation 
by  allowing  insanitary  conditions  to  prevail  is  simply  tremendous. 
It  is  likewise  twofold.  There  is  in  the  first  place  a  great  waste 
of  productive  power  which  might  otherwise  be  utilized;  and 
secondly  there  is  the  expense  of  maintenance  of  hospitals  and 
pauper  institutions,  a  large  number  of  the  inmates  of  which  are 
recruited  through  sickness  caused  by  unhealthy  living  environ- 
ment. " 

In  speaking  of  this  subject  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  experience 
of  all  cities  is  more  or  less  common.  The  cost  of  weariness  and 
various  forms  of  sickness  to  the  working  people  of  Chicago  is 
doubtless  greater  than  any  estimate  based  on  this  investigation 
would  indicate.  No  inquiries  were  made  concerning  the  sick- 
ness which  existed  in  the  district;  therefore,  any  conclusions 
which  could  be  drawn  from  the  inquiry  would  be  based  upon  the 
observation  of  the  enumerators  and  upon  those  complaints  which 
were  offered  voluntarily  by  the  people.  It  is  hardly  worth  while 
to  go  into  these  data.  It  is  safe  to  conclude  that  however  much 
or  little  sickness  has  resulted  from  the  housing  problem  in  the 
past,  its  importance  is  slight  compared  with  the  increase  which 
invariably  follows  the  growth  of  the  double-decker. 

DEATH    RATES    IN    NEGLECTED    DISTRICTSf 

Section  6.  It  is  well  known  that  the  published  death  rate  in 
Chicago  is  below  that  of  other  large  cities,  and  this  fact  has  in- 
spired efforts  to  impeach  the  accuracy  of  the  records  of  the 
Health  Department.  So  far  as  the  present  investigation  has 
dealt  with  this  subject — quite  incidentally — nothing,  except  the 
fact  that  contrary  to  the  practice  of  many  cities  no  account  is 
taken  of  deaths  occurring  within  twenty-four  hours  after  birth, 
has  been  found  to  justify  the  assertion  that  the  Health  Depart- 
ment's vital  statistics  establish  an  unfairly  low  death  rate  for  the 

*  Report  of  National  Bureau  of  Labor  on  Housing,  page  423. 
fThe  wards  mentioned  in  this  section  are  necessarily  referred  toby 
their  old  numbers. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  155 

whole  city.  It  is,  however,  undoubtedly  the  fact  that,  perhaps 
because  of  insufficient  appropriation,  the  records  of  the  local 
health  office  are  kept  in  a  most  antiquated  way  and  afford  very 
meager  information. 

The  Health  Department  of  a  large  city  performs  one  of  the  most 
valuable  functions  of  the  governmental  service.  It  has  to  do  with 
the  life  and  death  of  a  community.  In  its  office  are  filed  by  law 
all  of  the  important  facts  concerning  the  cause  of  death,  the  age, 
etc.,  of  each  decedent.  It  is  particularly  important  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community  that  none  of  these  facts  should  be  neg- 
lected. Municipalities  should  require  a  perfect  ordering  of  the 
material  collected  and  its  classification  in  various  forms  fitted  to 
convey  most  successfully  to  the  people  a  knowledge  of  the  pre- 
cautions which  are  necessary  to  save  human  life.  In  Chicago 
deaths  are  recorded  alphabetically  and  registered  in  huge  volumes. 
No  other  classification  than  this  is  observed.  Such  a  method  of 
filing  effectually  buries  an  enormous  accumulation  of  extremely 
valuable  material  and  makes  it  inaccessible  even  to  those  most 
interested.  For  instance,  to  find  the  death  rate  in  a  particular 
block  or  group  of  houses,  is  the  work  of  weeks.  The  history  of 
deaths  in  particular  houses  is  therefore  totally  lost,  even  to  the 
Health  Commissioner.  Charts  and  maps,  so  common  in  foreign 
cities,  showing  the  progress  of  diseases  in  particular  localities 
and  their  relation  to  bad  housing  and  dwellings  without  sewerage, 
with  foul  privies  and  low  undrained  lots,  are  absent  from  the 
local  records.  There  are  houses  in  the  districts  investigated  in 
which  a  large  number  of  deaths  occurred  last  year,  and  blocks 
where  the  death  rate  was  as  high  as  thirty-seven  per  thousand. 
But  at  present  such  districts  and  blocks  are  unknown  to  the 
Department.  It  is  obvious  that  unless  a  system  of  cataloguing 
is  adopted  in  which  deaths  may  be  registered  in  several  different 
classifications,  it  will  be  impossible  for  Chicago  to  have  such 
information  concerning  its  mortality  statistics  as  will  enable  it  to 
deal  effectively  with  local  or  neighborhood  conditions. 

In  perfecting  the  local  statistics  it  is  also  necessary  to  have 
facts  which  only  a  census  of  the  entire  population  can  furnish. 
For  this  reason  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  the  school 
census  should  be  taken  as  much  for  the  benefit  of  the  Department 
of  Health  as  for  the  Board  of  Education.  For  the  use  of  the 


I56  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Health  Department,  facts  should  be  obtained  concerning  the 
name,  age,  sex,  race,  and  occupation  of  each  person  and  the  loca- 
tion of  his  dwelling;  that  is,  whether  front  or  rear.  Totals 
should  be  made  of  these  facts  for  each  block  in  Chicago.  If  this 
information  were  gathered  and  the  records  of  the  Health  Depart- 
ment made  to  conform,  the  vital  statistics  of  Chicago  would  pass 
beyond  the  stage  of  vague  generalization  and  approach  scientific 
accuracy. 

It  is,  however,  necessary  to  say  that  students  of  vital 
statistics  have  encountered  great  difficulty  in  reaching  satisfac- 
tory conclusions  as  to  the  degree  to  which  any  one  cause  is 
responsible  for  death.  But  great  advances  might  be  made  in 
showing  the  relation  between  insanitary  and  bad  housing  condi- 
tions and  mortality  rates  if  further  progress  were  made  along  the 
above  lines  in  the  collection  of  vital  statistics.  The  difficulties 
of  the  subject  are  so  great  that  in  the  report  of  the  New  York 
Tenement-House  Commission  of  1900  no  attempt  is  made  to  draw 
any  definite  conclusions  from  mortality  statistics.  How  far  bad 
housing  conditions  contribute  to  the  death  rate  is  certainly  a  sub- 
ject upon  which  no  absolutely  scientific  deductions  can  be  made. 

The  mortality  rates  of  Chicago  have  long  been  collected  and 
published  according  to  wards.  This  in  itself  makes  it  impossible 
to  show  the  relation  of  mortality  rates  to  housing  conditions, 
because  conditions  may,  and  in  fact  do,  vary  widely  in  the  same 
ward.  For  instance,  there  is  one  ward  in  the  city  which  has  a 
well  to  do  and  well  housed  population  with  a  death  rate  of  about 
nine  per  thousand,  a  colored  community  with  a  death  rate  of 
twenty-eight  per  thousand,  and  a  death  rate  for  the  other  resi- 
dents of  twelve.  The  mortality  of  the  whole  ward,  when  the 
average  is  drawn,  is  low  in  spite  of  the  high  death  rate  among 
the  colored  population.  Ward  death  rates  become  in  such  cases 
as  this  a  generalization  which  conceals  a  high  mortality  in  cer- 
tain portions  of  the  ward.  In  another  ward  there  is  a  very 
insanitary  district,  where  the  death  rate  may  be  in  all  probability 
forty  per  thousand,  but  in  a  rural  community  adjoining  in  the 
same  ward  the  rate  is  doubtless  not  more  than  seven  per  thousand. 
For  the  entire  ward,  therefore,  the  mortality  may  be  about  twenty- 
three  per  thousand.  What  are  the  reasons  for  the  difference  in  death 
rates  between  the  Eleventh  Ward  and  the  neighboring  Eighteenth 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  157 

Ward?  The  first  has  a  death  rate  of  12.9  and  the  second  one  of 
ninety  per  cent  greater.  To  what  is  due  this  shocking  difference? 
There  is  no  explanation  given  by  the  Department  of  Health. 
Yet  certain  conclusions  may  be  asserted  with  reasonable  confi- 
dence. Fifteen  wards,  eight  of  which  border  on  the  limits  of  the 
city,  have  death  rates  not  exceeding  12.76  per  thousand;  while 
nine  river  wards  have  a  mortality  of  from  sixteen  to  twenty-three 
per  thousand.  To  what  is  this  difference  due?  Why  is  it  pos- 
sible that  nearly  twice  as  many  persons  per  thousand  die  in  one 
portion  of  the  city  as  in  another?  In  the  river  wards,  which  are 
also,  generally  speaking,  tenement  wards,  certain  blocks  covered 
by  this  investigation  had  a  death  rate  as  high  as  31.03  and  37.17 
per  thousand,  and  among  the  people  in  certain  insanitary  tene- 
ments in  these  blocks  there  was  a  fearful  mortality.  Such  a  strik- 
ing contrast  between  the  mortality  rates  which  exist  in  one  part  of 
the  city,  where  sanitary  rules  and  regulations  are  observed,  and 
those  of  another  part  of  the  city,  where  the  sanitary  conditions 
are  abominable,  would  indicate  very  clearly  that  to  a  certain 
extent  the  death  rates  differed  because  of  the  varying  degrees 
of  sanitation.  Death  rates  of  a  great  city  should  be  gathered  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  the  difference  which  exists  in  various 
portions  of  the  city  having  the  same  characteristics  (irrespective 
of  the  local  ward  boundaries)  so  that  the  influences  of  drainage, 
habitation,  nationality,  etc.,  upon  mortality  would  appear.  It  is, 
however,  impossible  with  the  facts  now  at  hand,  to  explain  the 
causes  of  the  difference  in  death  rate  in  the  various  wards  of 
Chicago. 

As  the  comparison  between  the  various  wards  of  the  city  may 
result  in  erroneous  notions,  so  the  comparison  of  vital  statistics 
of  Chicago  with  those  of  other  cities  is  likely  to  result  in  inaccu- 
racies. For  example,  the  local  death  rate  cannot  be  compared 
with  those  of  Southern  cities.  Such  a  comparison  fosters  a  wrong 
impression,  because  Chicago's  death  rate  should  naturally  be 
lower  than  those  of  Southern  cities,  since  the  colored  people,  who 
make  up  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  population  in  the  South, 
have  an  enormous  death  rate.  In  order  to  compare  the  death 
rate  of  Chicago  with  death  rates  elsewhere,  it  is  necessary  to 
determine  the  mortality  rate  of  the  various  nationalities,  and  the 
death  rate  per  thousand  of  all  persons  living  in  certain  age 


158  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

periods.  Further  reference  will  presently  be  made  to  these  sub- 
jects, but  just  here  it  may  be  suggested  that  the  mortality  rates 
should  be  obtained  for  children  under  one  year,  for  children 
under  five  years,  for  persons  between  the  ages  of  five  and  ten 
years,  and  so  on  until  the  age  limit  is  reached.  Death  rates 
gathered  in  the  various  cities  on  such  a  basis  could  be  compared 
so  as  to  avoid  serious  errors.  There  is  another  consideration 
which  invalidates  comparisons  between  cities.  Chicago's  rate 
is  often  compared  with  that  of  cities  like  Boston,  which  do 
not  include  within  their  boundaries  many  surrounding  districts 
that  are  practically  portions  of  the  various  municipalities.  The 
comparison  of  rates  between  this  city  and  cities  of  that  sort  is 
hardly  justified.  In  Boston  only  the  densest  portion  of  a  large 
urban  and  suburban  district  is  included  in  the  city  limits,  while 
Chicago  includes  in  its  boundaries  many  sparsely  settled  and 
almost  rural  wards.  A  low  death  rate  in  these  outlying  districts 
considerably  lowers  the  average  death  rate  of  Chicago.  If  a  true 
comparison  were  made,  Chicago  would  be  compelled  to  drop  out 
several  suburban  wards  where  the  death  rate  is  extremely  low. 
Still,  the  question  will  be  asked,  Do  conditions  here  urgently 
demand  reform?  Chicago  as  a  whole  has  fewer  deaths  per  thou- 
sand than  the  other  great  centers  of  population  in  the  country; 
is  there,  then,  any  pressing  reason  for  remedying  the  conditions 
which  have  been  shown  to  exist  by  this  Report?  To  such  ques- 
tions the  answer  is  that  there  is  every  reason  for  reform.  To  be 
sure,  there  are  climatic  influences  here  which,  other  things  being 
equal,  will  always  tend  to  keep  down  the  death  rate;  such  are 
the  proximity  of  the  city  to  a  large  body  of  fresh  water,  and 
especially  the  searching  south  wind,  which  in  hot  weather  con- 
sumes animal  and  vegetable  corruption  and  is  even  life-giving  as 
compared  with  the  heavy  humidity  that  in  other  localities  satu- 
rates the  summer  atmosphere.  Besides  this,  Chicago  has  a  large 
population  of  Jews,  among  whom  the  death  rate  is  low.  A  curious 
illustration  of  this  is  found  in  a  comparison  of  the  vital  statistics 
of  two  of  the  river  wards.  In  the  old  Seventh  the  death  rate  is 
only  11.99  per  thousand,  while  in  the  neighboring  ward  it  is  45.9/6 
higher.  The  sanitary  conditions  of  both  wards  are  as  bad  as 
possible,  but  in  the  ward  with  a  low  death  rate  the  Jews  live. 
The  only  known  cause  for  the  difference  in  death  rate  in  these 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  159 

two  wards  is  the  difference  in  nationality.  There  is  still  another 
reason  why  the  general  death  rate  is  materially  reduced,  and  it  lies 
in  the  fact  that  any  child  not  living  to  be  twenty-four  hours  old  is 
not  registered  as  having  died.  But  despite  all  of  these  various 
influences  which  are  at  work  in  keeping  the  death  rate  low,  the 
rate  varies  so  enormously  in  different  wards  as  to  prove  forcibly 
the  necessity  for  reform.  The  ill-housed  people, — those  living 
in  insanitary  conditions,  and  those  living  in  conditions  most 
unfavorable  to  life, — have  such  high  death  rates  as  to  neces- 
sitate on  the  part  of  public-spirited  citizens  an  investigation  into 
the  conditions  in  which  they  live.  But  even  if  the  difference  in 
death  rate  were  not  great — and  the  death  rate  should  not  be  the 
only  criterion  by  which  to  determine  the  welfare  of  a  commu- 
nity— there  are  other  reasons  for  reform.  The  evils  apparent  in 
Chicago  tenement-house  districts  are  prolific  of  misery,  crime, 
and  moral  degradation,  to  say  nothing  of  disease  in  forms  which 
sap  vitality  without  inducing  death. 

However,  the  tenement-house  problem  in  Chicago  is,  in  its 
most  important  aspect,  one  of  prevention,  comparatively  simple 
if  dealt  with  now,  but  full  of  danger  for  the  future.  For  there  is 
a  set  of  influences  tending  to  lower  the  death  rate  here  which 
must  in  time  be  expected  to  disappear.  For  instance,  the  factor 
of  favorable  age  distribution  may  be  but  temporary.  Chicago 
has  an  enormous  population  between  the  ages  of  five  and  forty- 
five  years,  at  which  time  the  death  rate  is  extremely  low. 

A  large  proportion  of  this  class  are  sturdy  emigrants,  and  the 
strongest  and  ablest  of  the  young  men  and  women  from  the  farms 
of  this  and  neighboring  states.  When  ill,  especially  with  diseases 
like  consumption,  the  unmarried  ones  often  return  to  their  homes 
to  die.  The  vast  population  of  Chicago  (which,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, has  doubled  in  the  last  fifteen  years)  is  perhaps,  to  a 
greater  extent  than  that  of  any  other  great  city,  made  up  of  new- 
comers who  have  been  here  a  comparatively  short  time.  They 
are  the  first  generation  in  the  city  and  have  excellent  resistance 
when  placed  in  insanitary  surroundings — resistance  due  to  the 
youth  and  strength  and  energy  which  are  always  found  in  the 
mass  of  those  who  seek  new  homes.  Is  it  to  be  doubted  that  this 
vital  advantage  will  steadily  dwindle  as  time  passes?  Still  another 
thing  which  has  kept  the  death  rate  "low  is  the  condition  of  the 


160  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

tenements  in  Chicago.  In  Manchester,  England,  the  death  rate 
exceeds  that  of  New  York  and  the  difference  is  largely  due  to 
the  fact  that  there  are  in  the  former  city,  which  has  very  old 
tenement  districts,  many  houses  fairly  alive  with  germs  accumu- 
lated through  generations,  not  to  be  long  resisted  by  the  hardiest 
constitutions.  And  if  the  current  tendencies  in  Chicago  be  not 
checked,  Manchester  conditions  will  become  Chicago  condi- 
tions. Tenement-houses  in  Chicago  are  still  largely  old,  frame 
buildings,  affording  a  good  quantity  of  light  and  air.  As  ground 
becomes  more  valuable  and  the  frame  dwellings  become  unin- 
habitable, they  will  surely  be  replaced  more  and  more  by  the  dark 
and  overcrowded  double-decker,  if  this  form  of  tenement  is  not 
prohibited  by  law. 

Such  considerations  as  these  emphasize  the  serious  nature  of 
the  problem  with  which  the  people  of  Chicago  must  deal.  For 
it  is  true  to-day,  and  the  truth  if  not  dealt  with  now  will  grow  in 
significance  as  time  passes,  that  to  a  very  large  extent,  at  least, 
the  people  who  die  in  neglected  wards  in  excess  of  the  natural 
quota  of  deaths,  die  because  of  neglect.  As  William  Farr,  the 
eminent  student  of  vital  statistics,  said  long  ago:  "If  the  people 
were  shot,  drowned,  burned,  poisoned  by  strychnine,  their  deaths 
would  not  be  more  unnatural  than  deaths  wrought  clandestinely 
by  disease  in  excess  of  the  quota  of  natural  deaths."  * 

*  Vital  Statistics,  William  Farr,  page  148. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CONCLUSION  — A  REVIEW  OF  REMEDIAL 
EFFORTS 

THE     HOUSING    PROBLEM    AND    THE     LACK     OF     PREVENTIVE 
MEASURES    IN   CHICAGO 

Section  i.  Those  who  have  read  the  foregoing  chapters  will 
realize  how  many  municipal  problems  are  associated  with  that  of 
housing.  The  conditions  presented  in  these  pages  represent 
those  in  which  the  great  majority  of  working  people  of  low  wages 
are  compelled  to  live.  Two  and  even  three  tenements  are  placed 
on  certain  lots,  until  either  in  this  way  or  by  entirely  covering 
the  land  with  one  house,  it  is  made  to  yield  maximum  profits. 
Under  the  faulty  administration  of  the  law,  landlords  can  now 
build  dark  rooms  with  impunity.  Basements,  dilapidated  cot- 
tages, tenements  unfit  for  habitation,  and  houses  with  danger- 
ously defective  plumbing  are  used  as  dwellings.  In  addition  to 
these  conditions  directly  connected  with  the  dwellings,  there  is 
great  neglect  of  streets,  alleys,  and  sidewalks,  of  garbage,  etc., 
which  result  in  disagreeable  and  unhealthful  surroundings.  Many 
of  these  evils  have  long  prevailed,  but  the  worst  of  all  is  a  new 
one,  the  double-decker.  Any  foreshadowing  of  the  future  on 
the  basis  of  this  inquiry  must  recognize  the  increase  of  this  most 
unwholesome  form  of  tenement  and  suggest  measures  for  its 
prohibition. 

Chicago  has  no  intelligible,  well-planned  building  and  sanitary 
code.  Complicated  and  contradictory  ordinances  are  common. 
The  laws  concerning  sanitation  and  the  building  of  new  tene- 
ments are  not  classified  and  published  in  cheap  form  so  that  they 
may  be  put  to  use  by  the  residents  of  Settlements,  the  Visiting 
Nurses,  the  Bureau  of  Charities,  and  others.*  Representatives 
from  these  various  charities  are  constantly  inspecting  tenement- 

*A11  the  city  ordinances  are  codified  and  printed  down  to  1897.  The 
Citv  Homes  Association  has  secured  from  the  City  Hall  the  codifying  of 
the  Health  arid  Building  Laws  from  that  date  to  the  present,  and  hopes  very 
soon  to  have  them  printed. 

161 


162  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

house  premises  and  wishing  to  prevent  and  check  insanitary  con- 
ditions. Without  some  ready  method  of  referring  to  the  statutes 
and  ordinances  on  building  and  sanitation,  the  public  is  quite 
helpless  either  to  assist  the  city  departments  or  to  learn  how  far 
city  officials  enforce  existing  regulations. 

Chicago  is  both  uninformed  and  unprepared  for  the  future. 
The  new  evils  of  crowded  areas,  dark  and  overcrowded  rooms, 
lack  of  thorough  ventilation,  houses  too  dilapidated  for  use,  and 
many  others,  are  not  to  be  prevented  or  effectively  restricted  by 
the  present  laws.  To  prevent  these  evils  definite  laws  should  be 
enacted.  At  present  the  details  of  the  sanitary  construction  of  all 
new  buildings  are  left  largely  to  the  "discretion"  of  our  Health 
Department.  It  is  easy  to  see  in  what  a  difficult  position  these 
officials  are  placed.  It  would  take  a  singularly  brave  and  honest 
department  to  force  upon  a  landlord  with  political  influence  and 
power  a  series  of  restrictions  which  are  left  for  enforcement  to 
the  "discretion"  of  the  department.  With  present  political 
ideas  it  would  never  be  "discreet"  to  enforce  the  very  laws 
which  are  now  the  ones  most  needed  in  Chicago.  To  leave 
the  control  of  the  construction  of  all  future  dwellings  to  the 
"discretion"  of  the  Health  Department,  places  upon  it  alone 
the  responsibility  for  deciding  whether  or  not  there  will  be 
in  twenty  years  a  slum  of  double-deckers.  In  other  words,  if  the 
six  hundred  tenements  built  each  year  in  Chicago  are  to  be  a 
benefit  instead  of  an  injury  to  the  city,  there  must  be  a  compre- 
hensive code  of  laws  which  will  insure,  if  enforced,  light,  air,  and 
a  sufficient  amount  of  space  to  every  human  being.  It  is  easier 
to  prevent  than  to  reform.  It  is  simpler  and  less  expensive  to 
check  in  its  infancy  the  anti-social  tendency  of  certain  classes  of 
property  owners  than  it  is  to  spend  millions  of  dollars  to  destroy, 
remodel,  or  renovate  their  insanitary  property.  The  most  im- 
portant reason  for  an  adequate  code  of  laws  is,  that  very  great 
preventive  work  is  possible. 

THE    TREND    OF   ADMINISTRATIVE    ORGANIZATION    IN 
OLDER    CITIES 

Section  2.  Those  cities  which  have  suffered  severely  by  the 
tenement-house  problem  have  all  developed  three  lines  in  a  pro- 
tective policy.  First,  supervision  and  regulation  of  new  tenement- 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  163 


house  building  is  planned  so  as  to  permit  no  new  building  which 
will  be  injurious  to  the  community.  Second,  tenements  danger- 
ous to  health  are  demolished  or  altered  and  renovated.  Third, 
regular  supervision  and  inspection  of  tenements  is  carried  on  for 
the  purpose  of  preventing  conditions  which  endanger  the  public 
health.  Except  for  the  second  of  these  activities,  Chicago  has 
already  made  a  tentative  beginning.  But  for  some  reason,  perhaps 
the  lack  of  co-ordination  in  the  activities  of  the  various  'municipal 
and  state  departments,  many  weaknesses  exist  in  administrative 
efforts. 

Several  different  departments  are  depended  upon  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  laws  regarding  tenement  and  lodging  house 
construction  and  regulation.  The  Building  Department,  the 
State  Factory  Inspectors,  the  State  Board  of  Health,  the  City 
Board  of  Health,  and  the  Bureau  of  Streets  and  Alleys,  and 
other  official  bodies  now  divide  the  responsibility.  Each  one  of 
these  various  departments  is  burdened  with  numberless  other 
duties  and  only  a  portion  of  its  time  can  be  given  to  the  consider- 
ation of  tenement-house  evils. 

The  French,  with  their  remarkable  gift  for  classifying  and 
systematizing  all  efforts,  established  in  Paris  several  decades  ago 
a  permanent  commission  of  experts,  including  physicians,  archi- 
tects, and  engineers,  whose  sole  duty  is  the  supervision  of  dwell- 
ing-houses. Between  the  years  1872  and  1892  the  Commission 
des  Logements  Insalubres  secured  the  alteration,  improvement, 
or  destruction  of  fifteen  thousand  houses  and  in  this  manner 
affected  the  lives  of  about  a  half  a  million  people.*  Paris 
was  first  to  see  that  the  housing  question  was  of  sufficient 
importance  to  require  the  services  of  a  special  commission 
devoted  to  this  "single  feature  of  sanitary  administration."  The 
London  County  Council  has,  after  a  certain  fashion,  followed 
the  leadership  of  Paris  and  appointed  a  committee  on  "Public 
Health  and  Housing,  "f  This  committee  has  taken  a  broad  view 
of  the  housing  problem.  It  has  seen  that  the  question  of  furnish- 
ing the  people  "room  to  live"  is  the  most  serious  municipal  prob- 
lem of  the  century.  It  means  the  redistribution  of  a  population 
of  over  a  million  people.  It  involves  the  question  of  a  cheap  and 

*Albert  Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in  Europe,  pages  90-92. 
•[Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain,  page  288. 


164  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

quick  suburban  train  service;  the  regulation  of  factories  situated 
in  the  central  portions  of  the  city,  and  the  prevention  of  the  old 
evils  arising  within  growing  suburbs.  In  a  word,  the  whole  time 
of  that  committee  is  given  to  the  work  of  managing  on  large  and 
comprehensive  lines  the  sanitary  housing  of  London's  population. 
Your  committee  would  recommend  careful  consideration  of 
these  efforts  to  place  upon  a  single  responsible  body  the  duties 
of  regulating  the  existing  tenements,  of  controlling  the  new  build- 
ings, and  of  rationally  grouping  the  population  of  Chicago. 
There  are  really  magnificent  opportunities  in  this  city  for  a  com- 
mittee with  such  powers.  With  architects  and  men  of  business 
and  science  on  such  a  board,  we  could  look  forward  to  what  every 
citizen  wants,  a  healthy  and  well  built  city.  The  New  York 
Tenement-House  Commission  is  now  planning  a  body  whose  duties 
will  be  extended  even  beyond  the  ones  indicated  here.*  Their 
plan  makes  the  commission  assume,  so  far  as  tenements  are  con- 
cerned, the  duties  of  the  Health  Department.  There  may  be 
objections  to  a  plan  of  this  sort,  which  will  be  seen  upon  a  more 
careful  study,  and  at  this  time  a  consideration  only  of  these 
previous  efforts  is  urged,  as  affording  suggestions  which  may  be 
of  great  interest  and  value. 

THE     NEW    LAWS     MOST    NECESSARY   AND    THE     IMPORTANCE 
OF    REGULAR    INSPECTION 

Section  3.  Quite  outside  of  the  question  of  administrative 
reform,  a  few  new  laws  are  necessary  to  prevent  the  building  of 
harmful  tenements  and  gradually  to  secure  good  types  of  tene- 
ment-house construction.  That  this  is  most  important  should  be 
realized  at  once,  for  in  1895,  957  new  tenements  were  constructed ; 
in  1896,  562  tenements;  in  1897,  531  tenements,  and  in  1898,  410 
tenements.  These  facts  illustrate  what  power  the  Health  and 
Building  departments  of  Chicago  could  exert  in  preventing  evils. 
But  plans  of  each  of  these  2,460  tenement  buildings  were  inspected 
by  these  departments  before  the  tenements  were  constructed,  and 
yet  this  inquiry  shows  that  of  this  number  many  tenements  were 
improperly  constructed  and  insanitary.  The  main  fault  with 
the  present  law  is,  that  too  much  is  left  to  the  "discretion" 

*See  advance  sheets  of  its  report,  page  38. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  165 

of  the  officials.  Chicago  doubtless  needs  some  additional  legis- 
lation on  the  subject  of  tenements.  A  limit  should  be  placed 
upon  the  proportion  of  land  which  may  be  covered  by  buildings, 
and  upon  the  height  of  tenements.  Stringent  requirements  for 
lighting  and  ventilating  all  habitable  rooms  are  needed,  since  a 
prevention  of  the  further  growth  of  dark  and  badly  ventilated 
rooms  is  most  important.  A  law  is  needed  which,  in  its  logical 
outcome,  will  restrict  overcrowding. 

Laws  should  provide  for  a  certain  number  of  cubic  feet  of  air- 
space for  each  individual.  Perhaps  the  most  successful  method 
now  in  use  to  prevent  overcrowding  of  apartments  is  the  one 
established  in  many  English  cities.  Some  of  the  dwellings  most 
often  found  overcrowded  are  ticketed  by  the  local  authorities. 
By  this  method  a  card  or  ticket  is  exhibited  upon  the  tenement 
showing  that  no  more  than  a  certain  number  of  people  are  per- 
mitted to  dwell  in  it.  It  enables  the  inspector,  when  making  an 
investigation,  to  know  exactly  how  many  people  should  be  per- 
mitted to  dwell  in  a  particular  tenement.  A  more  thorough  plan 
of  making  certain  that  landlords  obey  the  law  is  a  plan  for  licens- 
ing tenement-houses.  This  is  being  very  generally  urged  in  New 
York  City.  By  this  method  all  tenements  are  made  to  pay  a 
yearly  fee  of  a  few  dollars.  If  any  of  the  sanitary  laws  are  vio- 
lated, then  the  licenses  are  revoked  and  the  tenement-houses 
closed.  This  plan  has  two  great  advantages.  First,  it  assists 
the  city  in  its  control,  and  second,  if  applied  to  all  tenement- 
houses,  new  and  old,  it  supplies  a  sufficient  fund  to  carry  on  the 
work  of  an  efficient  corps  of  inspectors. 

Perhaps  the  next  most  important  matter  is  the  necessity 
for  some  authority  to  demolish  dangerous  tenements.  In  1895 
a  law,  which  is  in  substance  a  section  of  the  English  Hous- 
ing of  the  Working  Classes  Act  of  1890,  was  passed  in  New 
York.*  In  1897,  Mayor  Quincy,  of  Boston,  copied  this  New 
York  expropriation  act.  As  Jacob  Riis  says  in  "A  Ten  Years' 
War,"  page  72:  "It  provides  for  the  seizure  of  buildings  that  are 
dangerous  to  public  health  or  unfit  for  human  habitation,  and 
their  destruction,  upon  proper  proof,  with  compensation  to  the 
owner  on  a  sliding  scale  down  to  the  point  of  entire  unfitness, 
when  he  is  entitled  to  the  value  of  the  material  in  his  house." 

*  See  Charter  Greater  New  York,  Chapter  567,  Section  7. 


166  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

Many  houses  have  been  demolished  in  both  cities  under  this  law. 
No  compensation  is  given  to  owners,  because  it  is  held  that  the 
owner  of  property  unfit  for  habitation  has  no  claim  for  damages. 
If  a  new  method  of  administration  and  a  new  and  model  code 
of  laws  were  obtained  in  Chicago,  the  city  would  be  little  advanced 
beyond  its  present  situation  if  inspection  and  enforcement  were 
wanting.  In  the  administration  of  sanitary  and  housing  laws  for 
the  regulation  of  existing  tenements,  great  improvement  can  be 
made.  Regular  and  frequent  inspection  of  all  tenements  should 
be  undertaken.  The  inspectors  employed  at  present  are  able  to 
do  little  more  than  report  upon  complaints.  This,  of  course, 
handicaps  the  department.  It  has  been  repeatedly  said  that  laws 
were  not  enforced.  Some  laws  of  vital  importance  to  the  public 
health  seem  to  be  entirely  ignored.  In  commenting  upon  the  lack 
of  enforcement,  it  is  not  meant  that  the  Board  of  Health  or  other 
departments  of  the  city  government  are  entirely  to  blame. 
Undoubtedly  the  number  of  inspectors  should  be  enlarged  in 
order  to  enforce  the  laws  now  on  our  statute  books.  To  be 
sure,  the  work  of  inspection  decreases  when  the  public  realizes 
that  there  is  a  determination  to  enforce  laws.  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult, therefore,  to  say  how  many  inspectors,  clerks,  and  other 
officials  would  be  necessary  to  properly  enforce  the  old  and  the 
laws  here  proposed.  It  is,  however,  an  economy  to  have  a  suffi- 
cient force  to  execute  the  important  duties  of  the  Health  and 
Building  departments,  for,  above  all,  in  sanitary  measures  there 
is  economy  in  quick  and  heroic  action. 

THE  NEED  OF  SMALL  PARKS  AND  GARDENS 

Section  4.  There  are  other  reforms  necessary  than  those  con- 
cerning mere  tenement-house  construction  and  management. 
The  subject  of  open  air-spaces  in  the  crowded  districts  should 
occupy  a  chapter  by  itself,  as  so  much  is  to  be  said  of  vivid 
interest  on  this  topic. 

The  National  Bureau  of  Labor*  after  its  investigation  seven 
years  ago  made  the  statement  that  Chicago's  tenement-house 
districts  have  fewer  yard  spaces  than  similar  districts  in  Phila- 

*  See  page  96  of  the  Report  of  the  National  Bureau  of  Labor  on  Slums 
of  Great  Cities. 


168  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

delphia,  New  York,  or  Baltimore.  This  is  so  startling  that  it  has 
been  doubted  by  many  people,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
present  investigation  could  not  thoroughly  cover  the  whole  sub- 
ject for  the  city.  However,  there  were  no  parks  or  playgrounds 
in  the  districts  covered  to  report  upon,  and  there  are  very  few 
in  the  whole  city. 

What  open  spaces  there  are  consist  of  little  more  than  streets 
and  alleys,  small  yards,  passages,  and  courts.  A  few  vacant  lots 
exist,  but  they  are  not  available  for  use  by  the  public,  and  are, 
in  many  cases,  so  low  and  damp  and  filled  with  rubbish  that  they 
would  be  of  little  service  if  free  to  the  use  of  the  neighborhood. 
In  some  parts  of  Chicago,  populations  with  a  density  of  from 
three  hundred  to  nearly  five  hundred  persons  per  acre  live  with- 
out a  single  open  space  near  them,  and  on  summer  evenings  the 
people,  leaning  from  the  windows,  sitting  upon  the  steps,  the 
curb,  and  the  wooden  garbage  boxes,  and  walking  up  and  down 
the  streets  in  crowds,  are  proof  enough  of  the  need  of  small 
accessible  parks  or  "places."  At  present  the  only  alternative 
to  walking  about  and  sitting  in  these  streets,  which  seems  to 
many  of  these  incomers  from  cleaner  foreign  towns  impossible 
to  bear,  is  a  trip  over  car  lines  for  miles  to  find  a  spot  of  open 
garden.  This,  on  account  of  the  expense,  is  impossible  to  vast 
numbers  of  these  families  with  young  children. 

The  utter  absence  of  beauty  in  these  districts  is  a  condi- 
tion almost  as  important  as  the  sanitary  and  social  sides  of  the 
subject.  In  District  i  there  are  but  fifty-eight  trees.  About  the 
same  number  exist  in  the  Polish  district,  and  only  twenty-eight 
were  found  in  the  Bohemian  quarter.  The  accompanying  print 
illustrates  the  charm  bestowed  by  even  a  few  straggling  willows 
and  poplars  in  districts  otherwise  unattractive  and  bare.  There 
were  found  but  266  small  gardens  for  2,117  dwellings.  Most  of 
these  were  less  than  ten  feet  square. 

Many  large  cities  see  the  necessity  of  furnishing  numerous 
breathing-spaces  in  the  heart  of  congested  districts.  The  Ger- 
man cities  have  done  most  in  this  direction.  Berlin  has  nearly 
one  hundred  open  spaces  within  the  city  limits.  Munich  has 
forty-two,  Breslau  thirty-six,  and  Hamburg  fifty-seven.  Paris 
has  about  the  same  number  of  small  parks  as  Berlin  and  has  cut 
wide  tree-bordered  boulevards  through  tenement  quarters.  Glas- 


17°  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

gow,  besides  thirteen  large  parks,  has  fourteen  small  recreation 
grounds.  The  London  County  Council  has  established  over  forty 
of  these  small  breathing-spaces.* 

Mr.  Roy  Maltbie,  in  a  monograph  on  Municipal  Functions, 
published  by  the  Reform  Club  of  New  York,  says  that:f  "The 
first  public  open-air  gymnasium  in  the  world  was  maintained  by 
the  City  of  Boston  in  one  of  its  small  parks  known  as  the  Charles 
River  Embankment.  A  more  complete  model  playground  for 
children  has  been  established  at  Philadelphia,  and  many  other 

playgrounds  have  recently  been  provided In  New  York 

a  number  of  the  schoolhouses  are  used  for  playrooms  during  the 
summer  months.  Boston  has  recently  been  presented  with  a 
large  and  well-equipped  indoor  gymnasium  in  East  Boston,  which 
is  maintained  by  the  Park  Commission  free  to  the  public.  The 
London  City  Council  has  six  open-air  gymnasiums  for  adults  and 
twelve  for  children."  In  1897,  Philadelphia  had  thirty  play- 
grounds, besides  the  model  one  mentioned  above.  It  is  fast 
being  recognized  by  the  older  cities  as  a  municipal  duty  to 
provide  overcrowded  districts  with  as  many  small  parks  as  possi- 
ble, and  to  give  the  children  of  the  tenements  larger  opportuni- 
ties for  development. 

Much  has  also  been  done  by  private  initiative.  The  Metro- 
politan Public  Gardens  Association,  formed  in  London  in  1882, 
has  done  an  important  work  of  this  kind.  It  is  purely  a  volun- 
teer effort  which  has  for  its  purpose  the  establishment  of  public 
gardens  and  playgrounds.  It  has  placed  seats  in  roads  and  recre- 
ation grounds  and  has  planted  trees  in  thoroughfares.  It  aids  in 
acquiring  public  spaces  and  prevents  encroachments  upon  com- 
mons, burial-grounds,  and  other  open  spaces.  It  also  supports 
out-of-door  gymnasiums.  In  these  and  other  ways,  it  has  pro- 
moted those  species  of  common  possessions  which  yield  untold 
benefit  to  the  people.  J 

Contrast  what  has  been  done  in  other  cities  with  what  has 
been  done  in  Chicago,  and  with  the  fact  that  of  the  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  appropriation  recommended  by  the  Special  Parks 
Commission  last  year,  but  ten  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated 

*  Municipal  Affairs,  December,  1898,  page  107. 
fSee  same,  page  108. 
JSee  Reports. 


Q 
Z 

D 
O 

M 
O 


I73  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

for  the  purpose.  A  strong  plea  must  be  made  to  the  ultimate 
arbiter  of  civic  necessities,  the  public,  for  the  holding,  while 
there  is  yet  time,  of  space  enough  all  through  the  city  to  afford 
all  of  our  citizens  their  needed  refreshment.  The  children  of 
the  tenements  need,  as  part  of  their  education,  a  place  to  swim, 
skate,  play  base-ball,  foot-ball,  and  games  of  all  sorts.  Play- 
grounds fully  equipped  with  a  competent  instructor  are  of  as 
much  educative  importance  in  this  day  of  the  yardless  tenement 
as  the  schools  themselves.  They  are  a  municipal  necessity. 

Could  not  the  city  economize  its  efforts  and  meet  many  needs 
by  ordering  that  space  should  be  made  for  parks  and  playgrounds 
near  every  schoolhouse?  New  York  has  passed  a  law  providing 
that  every  schoolhouse  shall  have  a  playground,  and  is  now 
forced  to  comply  with  it  oftentimes  by  utilizing  the  roof.  The 
Chicago  Board  of  Education,  in  the  spring  of  1900,  passed  a 
resolution  that  in  future  school  sites  should  have  provision  for 
playgrounds.  This  indicates  the  attitude  of  the  school  board  on 
this  subject,  but  as  yet  it  is  not  law.  Will  not  the  city  see  that 
this  becomes  law  and  that  this  necessity  is  assured?  The  imagi- 
nation could  then  see  not  far  in  the  future  many  forces  operating 
together  for  the  welfare  of  the  community.  With  the  school  itself 
more  and  more  discovering  the  real  educative  needs  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  with  a  well-equipped  playground  in  every  case,  these 
two  necessities  of  work  and  of  play  thus  properly  provided  for 
would  undoubtedly  keep  out  of  the  juvenile  court  many  of  these 
more  innocent  than  guilty  offenders.  Then,  with  the  school- 
house,  a  public  possession  already  provided,  and  this  allotment 
of  public  space,  part  of  which  could  be  park-like  and  suiting  the 
needs  of  the  older  population,  could  not  permission  be  had  to  use 
the  schools  for  neighborhood  centers?  It  seems  that  this  pro- 
vision cannot  long  withstand  the  growing  attention  given  to  it 
on  every  side.  The  benefits  of  such  a  provision  might  be  untold 
and  capable  of  infinite  expansion. 

PUBLIC    BATHS    SHOULD    BE    RECREATIVE   AND    EDUCATIONAL 

Section  5.  Next  in  importance  to  the  open  space  movement 
should  be  considered  the  active  efforts  which  are  being  very 
generally  made  for  the  establishment  of  public  baths.  Over  a 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  173 

hundred  years  ago  Liverpool  began  the  movement  which  has 
spread  with  rapidity,  especially  during  the  last  fifty  years,  not 
only  throughout  all  European  and  continental  cities,  but  also  to 
most  large  cities  of  this  country.  London  has  over  thirty  public 
baths.  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Baltimore, 
and  many  other  American  cities  have  undertaken  to  satisfy  this 
pressing  need.  Boston  has  progressed  far  beyond  the  others.* 

There  are  at  present  four  free  public  baths  in  Chicago,  and  in 
several  of  the  pumping  stations  arrangements  have  been  made 
to  give  spray  baths;  but  without  under-estimating  these  efforts  as 
important  beginnings,  several  new  lines  of  development  are  essen- 
tial for  a  rounded  municipal  scheme  of  public  baths.  Bathing 
should  be  made  more  than  a  dull  chore  which  is  to  be  put  off  as 
long  as  possible.  Public  baths  should  be  places  of  recreation.  To 
satisfy  this  need,  large  swimming  tanks,  which  no  one  is  allowed 
to  enter  without  having  first  taken  a  spray  bath,  have  been  estab- 
lished in  this  country  and  abroad.  In  these  baths  swimming 
clubs  are  encouraged  and  competition  between  the  clubs  of  the 
various  bathing  establishments  lend  interest  and  spirit. 

In  several  cities  the  swimming  tanks  are  in  use  both  summer 
and  winter,  but  in  some  cities  the  larger  swimming  pools  are 
floored  over  in  the  winter  season  and  turned  into  a  gymnasium. 
One  of  the  most  beautiful  baths  in  this  country  is  in  Brookline, 
Massachusetts.  The  location  of  the  new  baths  is  the  center  of 
population  of  the  town,  close  to  its  principal  playground  and  its 
new  high  school.  Systematic  instruction  is  given  on  regularly 
appointed  days  to  three  thousand  school  children. f 

Educationally,  the  bath  in  the  public  school  ranks  with  the 
playgroui.d;  sprays  should  be  established  in  connection  with 
every  public  school  where  children  can  be  taught  to  bathe  prop- 
erly and  with  regularity.  It  is  said  of  the  baths  of  this  kind  that 
have  already  been  established:  "Teachers  are  unanimous  in 
asserting  that  school  baths  are  beneficial,  that  they  foster  bodily 
vigor,  brighten  the  minds  of  the  pupils,  increase  interest  in  study, 
dispel  laziness,  improve  the  air  of  classrooms,  and  increase  neat- 

*  See  reports  of  the  various  cities,  and  Municipal  Affairs,  December, 
1898,  pp.  108-113. 

t  Report  of  Mayor's  (New  York)  Special  Committee  on  Baths,  etc., 
page  63. 


174  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

ness,  cleanliness,  decorousness,  as  well  as  the  general  health  and 
happiness  of  the  pupil."  * 

Mr.  William  P.  Gerhard,  in  a  paper  on  this  subject  before  the 
American  Social  Science  Association,  says:  "In  all  sections  of 
this  country,  as  in  most  other  civilized  and  progressive  countries, 
great  attention  is  being  paid  to  school  sanitation.  But  though 
much  care  is  here  devoted  to  lighting,  ventilation,  and  heating, 
to  drainage  and  furniture  in  the  schoolroom,  comparatively 
little  attention  has  hitherto  been  paid  to  the  requirements  of  bodily 
cleanliness  of  the  pupils.  In  the  best  modern  schoolhouse,  sani- 
tarily planned,  drained  and  ventilated,  children  are  brought 
together  who  may  and  often  do  carry  on  their  bodies  and  in 
their  clothing  the  germs  of  infection.  It  was  this  very  obser- 
vation which  compelled  the  hygienist,  Professor  Fluegge,  of 
Gottingen,  after  an  examination  of  the  healthful  and  clean 
school  interiors  of  his  city,  to  exclaim, f  'Of  what  good  are  all 
these  modern  sanitary  arrangements  when  dirty  children  with 
disease  germs  lurking  on  their  bodies  or  their  clothes  are  brought 
into  these  healthful  classrooms?'  " 


THE    WORK    OF    SANITARY  AND    HOUSING   ASSOCIATIONS 

Section  6.  Sanitary  and  housing  associations  have  been 
formed  in  many  cities.  A  sanitary  aid  society,  such  as  the 
"Mansion  House  Council  on  Dwellings  of  the  Poor  in  London," 
or  the  "Sanitary  Aid  Society  of  New  York,"  would  find  a  great 
field  for  usefulness  in  Chicago.  The  purposes  of  these  societies 
are,  first,  to  create  and  maintain  public  sentiment  which  will 
support  the  health  department  in  doing  its  whole  duty;  second, 
to  obtain  necessary  legislation ;  third,  to  make  special  inquiries 
and  investigations,  and  fourth,  to  educate  the  public  by  any 
means  possible  in  the  elementary  principles  of  sanitation  and 
hygiene.  The  chapters  preceding  show  what  scope  there  is  for 
such  societies.  For  a  law  enforcement  organization,  years  of  per- 
sistent effort  could  be  planned. 

This  is  a  most  opportune  moment  to  investigate  certain  evils 
and  the  cost  of  reforms.  Suggestions  by  private  associations  to 

*  Journal  American  Social  Science  Association,  1900,  page  30. 
t  Journal  of  American  Social  Science  Association,  1900,  pp.  30-49. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  175 

assist  our  city  council  to  deal  effectively  and  economically  with 
the  garbage  and  street-cleaning  problems,  would  be  most  valu- 
able at  this  time.  Plans  for  the  regulation  of  certain  trades  asso- 
ciated with  tenement-houses  should  be  submitted  to  the  public 
authorities.  A  carefully  prepared  building  and  sanitary  code, 
including  some  necessary  new  laws,  would  be  of  great  value.  In 
its  largest  usefulness  a  sanitary  aid  society  should  not  only  under- 
take investigations,  but  should  also  follow  up  all  its  inquiries 
with  practical  remedial  efforts.  For  instance,  the  "Social  and 
Sanitary  Society  of  Edinburgh"  has  inspectors  who  are  constantly 
engaged  in  reporting  sanitary  and  housing  evils  to  the  municipal 
authorities.  The  London  society  has  groups  of  inspectors  in 
every  district  of  the  city  which  make  constant  inspections  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing  to  the  various  vestry  boards  instances  of 
sanitary  neglect. 

The  most  important  private  effort  in  the  direction  of  provid- 
ing remedies  to  actual  evils  is  the  work  of  the  housing  associ- 
ations. Almost  every  large  eastern  or  foreign  city  has  examples 
of  model  tenement  construction.  Such  tenements  have  been  built 
by  companies  which  are  first  purely  commercial;  second,  com- 
mercial with  a  tinge  of  philanthropy — that  is  to  say,  limiting  their 
income  to  a  small  dividend;  and  third,  philanthropic,  where  the 
surplus  income  is  devoted  to  the  extension  of  the  work.  Besides 
these  efforts,  many  large  employers  with  commercial  interests  in 
view,  have  furnished  housing  accommodations  to  their  employes. 
This  movement  has  spread  with  considerable  rapidity  throughout 
foreign  cities.  In  London  alone  there  are  eleven  large  housing 
corporations,  with  capital  amounting  to  fifteen  million  dollars, 
yielding  an  income  of  six  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  dollars  a 
year.*  In  New  York  the  Riverside  Buildings  pay  six  per  cent.f 
The  New  York  Improved  Dwelling  Association  pays  five  per  cent 
regularly.  J  In  1896  the  City  and  Suburban  Homes  Association 
was  organized  with  a  capital  of  one  million  dollars.  Dr.  E.  R.  L. 
Gould,  the  president,  states  as  the  objects  of  this  association  :§ 
"To  offer  to  capital  a  safe  and  permanent  five  per  cent  invest- 

*  Christian  Social  Union  Leaflet  II  (London). 

|  See  annual  statements. 

JSee  annual  reports. 

§  Prospectus  of  the  Association,  page  I. 


I76  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

ment  and  at  the  same  time  to  supply  wage-earners  with  improved 
wholesome  houses  at  current  rates."  The  association  has  made 
an  effort  to  remove  the  better  paid  wage-earners  from  the  con- 
gested districts  of  the  city.  The  inner  circle  of  all  large  cities 
almost  always  has  a  pressure  of  overcrowding  from  many  differ- 
ent sources.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to  remove  various  classes 
of  unskilled  wage-workers.  To  build  tenements  in  the  central 
portion  of  a  city  for  skilled  laborers  or  those  drawing  sufficient 
wages  to  enable  them  to  live  out  of  the  inner  circle,  is  to  add 
more  crowding  to  the  already  congested  district.  But  the  New 
York  association  has  also  built  tenements  which  would  furnish 
poorly  paid  laborers  with  sanitary  homes  situated  in  the  down- 
town areas.  It  is  certainly  most  important  that  model  tenements 
which  are  designed  to  house  the  better  paid  wage-earners  should 
not  be  built  in  the  inner  circle  of  any  city. 

Efforts  in  model  housing  are  too  numerous  to  specify.  Wash- 
ington, Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Cincinnati,  Boston,  New  York, 
and  almost  every  foreign  city,  have  model  housing  companies. 
Many  more  such  companies  would  be  formed  probably,  if  it 
were  known  that  model  tenement  building  had  been  in  the  past  a 
very  safe  investment.  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould  said  before  the  New 
York  Tenement-House  Exhibition  that,*  "Upward  of  one  hun- 
dred millions  of  dollars  have  been  invested  in  improved  housing 
in  the  largest  European  and  American  cities;  and  eighty-eight 
per  cent,  that  is,  eighty-eight  million  dollars,  is  now  earning  and 
always  has  earned  a  commercial  profit.  Six  per  cent,  that  is,  six 
millions  of  dollars,  has  returned  a  savings  bank  rate  of  interest, 
and  only  six  million  dollars  out  of  the  whole  one  hundred  million 
dollars  have  been  invested  less  profitably."  The  purposes  of  the 
improved  housing  companies  have  varied.  The  largest  effort  has 
gone  in  the  direction  of  establishing  model  block  dwellings  with 
little  or  no  personal  influence  exercised  by  the  builders.  In  cer- 
tain cases,  some  of  the  worst  and  most  insanitary  pieces  of  prop- 
erty have  been  bought  by  model  housing  companies.  Following 
this,  some  skilled  person  has  been  placed  in  charge  for  the  pur- 
pose of  improving  the  condition  of  the  tenants.  Certain  extremely 
valuable  results  have  been  attained  in  this  kind  of  work  by  Miss 
Octavia  Hill  and  Miss  Victoria  Cons,  of  London,  and  by  Miss 

*See  "Charities,"  February  17,  1900,  page  9. 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  177 

Collins,  of  New  York.  These  few  people  have  at  least  demon- 
strated that  the  foul  and  insanitary  conditions  which  exist  in  the 
worst  tenements  are  not  due  alone  to  the  habits  and  neglect  of  the 
tenants.  They  have  shown  that  the  mass  of  tenement-house 
property  is  very  badly  managed. 

A  most  interesting  suggestion  in  the  way  of  tenement-house 
reform  is  made  by  Mr.  Lawrence  Veiller,  of  New  York,  and  is 
illustrated  by  models  and  plans.*  It  contemplates  the  condem- 
nation by  the  city  of  a  whole  block  as  a  park,  from  which  a  strip 
of  land  forty  feet  deep  on  each  side  should  be  sold  to  a  private 
company,  who  would  erect  model  tenements,  under  certain 
restrictions.  "This,"  says  Mr.  Veiller,  "seems  the  most  hope- 
ful plan  ever  suggested.  The  company  paying  for  only  forty 
feet,  and  being  permitted  to  occupy  all  of  it,  can  pay  a  good  price 
and  still  make  six  to  seven  per  cent.  The  land  being  only  forty 
feet  in  depth,  the  buildings  would  be  only  two  rooms  deep,  and 
it  would  not  be  possible  to  have  any  dark  rooms.  The  city  sell- 
ing two-fifths  of  the  land  to  this  company,  would  certainly  get 
back  two-fifths  of  the  cost.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  will  get  back 
more,  for  they  can  sell  the  outside  for  more  than  the  inside,  so 
that  the  city  gets  120  by  400  feet  of  park  land,  and  also  gets 
model  tenements  at  the  same  time.  There  is  no  reason  why  this 
could  not  be  repeated  all  over  the  city  of  New  York  wherever 
parks  are  needed.  There  are  sixteen  proposed  parks  which  are 
absolutely  necessary  at  this  time.  Why  should  not  this  scheme 
be  put  through?  Why  should  not  this  work  be  begun  by  the  city? 
It  would,  of  course,  require  special  legislation,  but  it  would  be 
the  best,  wisest,  and  happiest  solution  of  the  problem  ever  made. " 

THE    EXTENT    OF    REMEDIAL    EFFORTS 

Section  7.  In  conclusion,  we  see  what  varied  municipal  and 
private  activities  are  necessary  in  order  to  control  the  housing 
conditions  in  large  cities.  The  most  serious  reform  question 
before  the  people  of  New  York  and  London  is  the  tenement-house 
problem.  In  both  of  these  cities,  the  formation  of  a  responsible 
commission  of  experts  to  control  the  distribution  of  population 

*See  Report  of  Tenement- House  Commission,  1900,  page  64.  Also 
"  Charities,"  February  24,  1000. 


178  TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO 

is  perhaps  the  most  thorough  expression  of  the  reform  move- 
ment. With  or  without  a  change  of  administration,  there  have 
been  in  all  cities  a  growing  control  and  regulation  by  the  city  of 
the  new  buildings  and  of  existing  structures.  Carefully  planned 
building  and  sanitary  codes,  with  the  most  explicit  provisions  for 
the  sanitary  construction  and  the  maintenance  of  all  tenements 
exist  in  the  older  cities.  Along  with  the  effort  to  control  the 
distribution  of  population  goes  a  carefully  planned  scheme  of 
dispersing  the  people  by  means  of  workingmen's  trains;  or  in 
other  words,  by  cheap,  rapid,  and  convenient  transportation. 
In  all  cities  the  movement  for  open  spaces  and  baths  is  spreading 
in  response  to  the  belief  that  much  of  physical  weakness,  debil- 
ity, and  juvenile  criminality  are  due  to  overcrowding.  Many 
foreign  cities  are  undertaking  the  construction  of  model  tene- 
ments, and  are  themselves  becoming  the  landlords  of  large  num- 
bers of  working  people. 

It  has  been  said  for  years  that  Chicago  has  no  serious  tene- 
ment-house problem,  that  owing  to  its  prairie  location  it  is  free 
from  the  pressure  which  the  Manhattan  Island  site  has  forced  upon 
New  York,  so  that  it  presents  the  most  crowded  tenement-house 
district  in  the  world ;  that  Chicago  has  not  the  squalid  conditions 
of  East  London,  which  have  grown  up  in  three  generations  of  city 
poor,  because  the  poorer  people  of  this  city  are  for  the  most  part 
European  immigrants  who  in  one  generation,  or  at  most  two,  grow 
prosperous  and  move  to  the  newer  quarters  of  the  city.  It  is 
further  added  to  this  statement  that  Chicago  conditions  are 
changing  so  rapidly  that  no  one  district  becomes  identified  with 
the  hateful  word  "slum,"  and  that  whatever  the  problems  may 
be,  they  are  all  in  the  future.  But  it  is  surely  true  that  a  problem 
which  arouses  reform  activity  so  varied  and  energetic  is  not  a 
mere  phantom. 

The  results  of  the  foregoing  investigation  were  a  surprise  to 
the  people  most  intimately  acquainted  with  the  districts,  for 
although  each  knew  of  shocking  isolated  cases,  it  was  supposed 
that  these  were  exceptional.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however, 
that  the  temptation  to  each  individual  owner  to  cover  his  entire 
lot  with  buildings  is  as  great  in  Chicago  as  in  New  Yorjc ;  and 
that  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  city  to  neglect  those 
wards  which  for  the  safety  of  the  whole  community  most  need  its 


TENEMENT  CONDITIONS  IN  CHICAGO  179 

care,  and  that  ten  years'  residence  in  an  insanitary  house  would 
ruin  the  health  of  the  sturdiest  immigrant.  This  report  warns 
the  people  of  Chicago  that  the  city's  location  alone  will  not  save 
it,  but  that  public  opinion  and  legal  enactment  are  essential  if 
Chicago  is  to  escape  the  housing  evils  of  New  York  and  London. 


A  CHILD  OF  THE  TENEMENTS 


APPENDIX. 
I 

OTHER    WORK   OF   THE    COMMITTEE 

Besides  the  inquiry  showing  the  sanitary  evils  in  representa- 
tive portions  of  the  city,  the  Committee  for  a  time  considered  a 
plan  for  undertaking  a  series  of  monographs  on  certain  other 
neglected  districts  in  Chicago.  The  conditions  of  the  Stock 
Yards  district  and  of  South  Chicago  are  of  special  interest  in  that 
they  show  most  abominable  outside  sanitary  conditions.  These 
districts  show  evils  which  are  really  anachronisms,  and  it  will 
surprise  many  Chicagoans  to  know  that  the  application  of  sani- 
tary principles  to  the  urban  standards  of  health  are  so  extremely 
backward  in  these  industrial  communities.  As  a  matter  of  inter- 
est and  not  as  a  conclusive  or  exhaustive  treatment  of  conditions 
in  these  and  other  portions  of  Chicago,  the  following  hastily  pre- 
pared report,  giving  a  general  view  of  the  conditions  on  the 
North  and  South  sides,  is  inserted:  "The  worst  district  in  South 
Chicago  lies  between  Eighty-third  and  Eighty-seventh  streets  and 
between  Ontario  and  Green  Bay  Avenue.  The  district  is  almost 
entirely  inhabited  by  Poles,  and  there  are  but  few  residents  of 
other  nationalities.  The  general  impression  in  walking  through 
this  district  is  that  there  exists  some  crowding  of  people  in  the 
houses,  although  the  houses  themselves  are  not  crowded  upon  the 
lots.  The  dwellings  are  almost  entirely  made  of  wood.  Some 
of  them  are  dilapidated;  all  of  them  seem  to  be  neglected. 
The  houses  are  built  on  piles  or  stilts.  The  water  stands  upon 
the  ground  almost  the  entire  year,  which  makes  it  dangerous  for 
people  to  live  in  basements.  However,  several  families  in  this 
district  live  in  such  apartments.  The  entire  district  lies  in  a 
swamp,  and  the  houses  are  built  upon  land  which  is  about  eight 
feet  below  the  city  datum.  In  some  places  the  sidewalks  are 
eight  feet  above  the  lots  and  the  street.  There  is  no  sewerage, 
unless  that  name  is  given  to  a  system  of  gutters  by  which  a  cer- 

181 


182  APPENDIX 

tain  amount  of  sewage  is  carried  off.  There  is  usually  an  odor 
from  the  foul  waste  matter  which  accumulates  in  these  places. 
The  land  is  undrained  and  in  some  cases  the  water  stands  for 
months  under  the  houses  and  upon  vacants  lots.  In  certain 
places  there  was  a  green  scum  upon  the  water  which  showed  that 
it  had  been  standing  stagnant  for  some  time.  There  are  no 
water-closets  and  the  outlawed  privy  vault  is  in  general  use. 
The  yards,  streets,  and  alleys  are  indiscriminately  used  for  the 
disposal  of  all  sorts  of  garbage  and  rubbish.  Almost  no  garbage 
boxes  were  found.  None  of  the  streets  are  paved,  and  the  whole 
district  is  filthy  beyond  description.  The  atmosphere  of  the 
neighborhood  is  clouded  with  smoke  and  the  district  is  ex- 
tremely dreary,  ugly,  and  unhealthful. 

In  the  Stock  Yards  district  there  is  no  large  area,  such  as  the 
one  in  South  Chicago,  where  the  conditions  seem  to  be  uniformly 

bad.  On Avenue  there  are  some  old  rookeries  and 

some  new  little  brick  boxes  raised  on  stilts,  which  will  probably 
be  sold  on  some  installment  plan  to  the  working  people  in  that 
vicinity.  Many  working  people  have  bought,  or  have  tried  to 
buy,  these  houses,  but  before  they  paid  up  the  installments 
the  houses  were  in  bad  repair  and  wretchedly  dilapidated.  Very 
often  workmen  have  tried  to  buy  them  on  the  installment  plan 
and  have  lost  them  again  and  again.  There  is  a  long  row  of 

houses  on Avenue  where  the  conditions  are  about  the 

same  as  stated  above.  Very  few  of  the  houses  in  this  locality 
are  deficient  in  provision  for  light  and  ventilation,  and  none  of 
them  seem  to  be  overcrowded.  The  worst  features  are  the 
external  conditions  which  surround  the  dwellings.  In  many 
parts  of  the  district  there  are  no  sewers  and  the  sewage  from  the 
houses  stands  in  stagnant  pools.  The  south  branch  of  the  Chi- 
cago River  is  really  a  ditch  which  accumulates  a  great  deal  of 
sewage  from  the  stock  yards,  and  fills  the  air  with  poisonous 
odors.  The  stench  from  the  stock  yards  is  also  present.  The 
district  is  overshadowed  by  heavy  clouds  of  smoke  from  "the 
yards." 

Between  La  Salle  and  State  Streets,  all  the  way  from  Fortieth 
Street  up  to  Harrison  Street,  there  are  some  exceedingly  bad 
housing  conditions.  Near  Thirty-sixth  Street  and  Armour 
Avenue  there  is  a  portion  of  a  block  which  is  called  "Hell's 


APPENDIX  183 

Half  Acre."  The  houses  are  badly  overcrowded  with  colored 
people,  and  many  of  the  rooms  are  dark.  People  live  in  cellars 
and  basements  which  are  very  near  overflowing  privies.  The 
alleys  are  dark  and  are  strewn  with  garbage.  The  houses  in  this 
particular  portion  are  badly  overcrowded  on  the  lots.  In  many 
other  places  in  this  portion  of  the  city  down  to  Twenty-sixth 
Street  are  either  old  dilapidated  frame  houses  or  large  tenements. 
Many  rear  houses  exist,  and  they  are  usually  overcrowded  and  in 
bad  condition.  North  of  Twenty-second  Street,  there  are  many 
large  tenements.  One  block  is  almost  entirely  covered  with 
double-deckers  from  three  to  five  stories  high.  There  is  no  alley 
in  this  block,  and  at  the  rear  of  the  double-deckers  there  is  a 
small  space  which  is  altogether  insufficient  to  provide  light  and 
ventilation. 

In  the  Italian  quarter  there  are  several  large  tenements  hous- 
ing hundreds  of  people.  The  most  dilapidated  houses  in  the  city 
probably  exist  on  Pacific  Avenue.  Rows  of  houses  in  this  part 
of  the  city  should  be  demolished.  There  is  a  group  of  double- 
deckers  on  Pacific  Avenue  just  north  of  Polk  which  completely 
covers  five  lots.  The  place  is  overcrowded  with  tenants  and 
almost  half  of  the  rooms  are  dark  and  unfit  for  habitation.  Water- 
closets  are  in  a  hallway  on  the  lower  floor  of  the  house.  There 
is  a  fearful  stench  arising  from  them  at  all  times.  The  tenants 
complain  bitterly,  both  of  the  odor  and  of  their  location. 
These  tenements  are  as  bad  as  any  elsewhere  in  this  country  or 
abroad.  While  this,  as  a  whole,  cannot  be  taken  as  even  a  super- 
ficial statement  of  the  evils  existing  in  this  part  of  the  city,  it  is 
suggestive  of  the  need  of  a  more  complete  inquiry. 

On  the  North  Side  there  are  several  places  worthy  of  note. 

On  the  northwest  corner  of and streets,  there 

are  five  or  six  tenements  of  four  and  five  stories  in  height  which 
are  built  very  closely  together.  The  light  and  ventilation  of  the 
houses  are  exceedingly  bad,  and  the  Italians  who  dwell  there  are 

overcrowded  in  the  rooms.  At Indiana  Street,  there  are 

several  brick  tenements  of  three  and  four  stories  high.  The 
houses  are  crowded  on  the  lots.  At  one  place  in  this  group  of 
tenements  the  only  open  space  is  a  deep  four-story  shaft,  or 
court,  which  is  mainly  used  for  the  purpose  of  inclosing  water- 
closets.  Looking  from  the  top  story  of  these  tenements  to  the 


184  APPENDIX 

bottom  of  the  court,  and  seeing  the  children  and  mothers  with 
babies  in  their  arms  walking  back  and  forth  in  this  small 
breathing-space,  is  a  forceful  reminder  of  New  York  conditions. 
Much  of  the  area  lying  between  Franklin  Street  on  the  east,  Erie 
on  the  north,  and  Chicago  River  on  the  west  and  south,  is 

covered    with    insanitary    tenements.       On Court   and 

Street,  near  Chicago  Avenue,  there  are  two  long  blocks 

where  the  houses  are  closely  crowded  on  the  lots.  Almost  every 
house  has  a  basement,  and  all  the  lower  rooms  seem  to  be  occu- 
pied. There  is  plenty  of  evidence  to  show  that  there  is  both 
overcrowding  on  the  lots  and  overcrowding  in  the  houses." 

II 

HISTORICAL,  DESCRIPTIVE,  AND  ECONOMIC  FEATURES  OF  THE 

DISTRICTS 

The  three  districts  investigated  might  be  roughly  taken  to 
include  nearly  all  of  the  Italian  quarter  in  the  Nineteenth  Ward, 
a  large  portion  of  the  Jewish  Ghetto,  a  small  part  of  the  Bohemian 
quarter,  and  a  small  portion  of  the  Polish  colony  in  the  Sixteenth 
Ward.  Many  other  nationalities,  however,  are  represented  in 
these  districts.  There  are  quite  a  large  number  of  Germans, 
Irish,  and  Bohemians  in  various  parts  of  the  Italian  and  Jewish 
colonies.  Scattered  here  and  there  are  some  Greeks  and  Austri- 
ans.  It  is  true  here  as  in  most  cities  that  the  Italian  and  Jewish 
immigrants  seek  out  the  poorest  and  most  neglected  districts  of 
the  city  in  order  to  obtain  the  advantages  of  a  low  rental.  For 
this  reason  and  the  necessity  of  both  of  these  peoples  living  in 
the  inner  circle  of  our  American  cities,  they  have  chosen  to  reside 
in  what  has  been  called  in  this  report  District  i.  It  is  one  of  the 
oldest  parts  of  Chicago,  and  lies  in  the  inner  circle,  within  a  short 
distance  of  the  central  business  portions  of  the  West  and  South 
sides.  Real  estate  has  been  declining  for  several  years  in  this 
locality.  Before  the  great  fire  of  1871,  which  started  in  Block 
15,  one  of  the  notoriously  crowded  blocks,  this  district  was 
largely  populated  by  Americans,  Irish,  and  Bohemians.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  great  fire  this  district  was  covered  over  with  small 
frame  and  brick  houses.  But  about  the  time  the  Jews  and  Ital- 


APPENDIX 


'85 


ians  began  to  move  in,  the  better  class  of  inhabitants  were  begin- 
ning to  move  away  and  leave  their  houses  in  a  more  or  less 
dilapidated  state.  Almost  no  improvements,  except  the  question- 
able ones  of  enlarging  and  covering  more  of  the  ground  space 
with  tenements,  have  been  undertaken  since  the  immigrants  have 
chosen  this  district  for  their  homes. 

The  rents  of  the  apartments  in  the  districts  investigated  were 
not  gathered  on  the  general  schedules,  but  in  the  special  investi- 
gation of  apartments  it  was  possible  to  learn  the  rents  of  420  differ- 
ent apartments.  In  the  Jewish  district  27  families  paid  for  their 
apartments  over  $10  a  month,  23  families  paid  from  $8  to  $10, 
and  22  families  paid  under  $6  per  month.  The  average  rent  paid 
per  apartment  per  month  was  $8. 28,  and  the  average  per  room  was 
$2.12.  The  rents  in  the  Italian  colony  are  considerably  lower 
than  those  in  the  Ghetto.  Only  one  Italian  family  paid  over  $10 
per  month  for  rent;  7  paid  between  $8  and  $10;  30  between  $6 
and  $8;  88  between  $4  and  $6,  and  26  families  paid  under  $4. 
The  average  rent  per  apartment  in  the  Italian  district  was  $4.92, 
while  the  average  rent  per  room  per  month  was  $1.78.  The 
houses  in  the  Italian  quarter  are  more  dilapidated  than  those  in 
the  Ghetto,  which  accounts  for  some  of  the  differences. 

The  following  is  a  tabular  statement  of  the  above  and  addi- 
tional facts: 

TABLE  OF  RENTS 


District. 

Classification  of  Rents  Paid. 

Average  Rent. 

$10  or 
over. 

$8  to 

$10. 

$6  to 
$8. 

$4  to 
JS6. 

Under 

$4- 

Per 

Apt. 

Per 
Room. 

Italian           .     

I 

27 

2 
2 

7 
23 
18 

2 
2 

3° 

22 
41 

18 

22 

88 

12 
36 
17 
10 

26 

2 

3 

7 

2 

$4-92 
8.28 
6.24 
5.66 
5-93 

$1.78 
2.12 
2.O4 
I.4O 
1.64 

Jewish. 

Between  Jewish  and  Italian 
District  2,  Polish 

District  3,  Bohemian  - 

The  value  of  tenement-house  property  depends,  of  course, 
upon  the  rents.  But  land  in  parts  of  District  i  is  worth  little, 
if  any,  more  than  it  was  twenty-five  years  ago.  It  is  worth  less 
than  it  was  seven  years  ago.  A  place  on  Ewing  Street  for  which 
$17,000  was  offered  in  1893  can  now  be  bought  for  less  than 


1 86 


APPENDIX 


$10,000.  A  vacant  lot  of  25  feet  in  width  on  Jefferson  Street 
was  sold  eighteen  years  ago  for  $2,500;  it  was  bought  back 
recently  by  the  former  owner  for  $1,800.  Property  on  the  busi- 
ness streets,  such  as  Halsted,  Twelfth,  and  Canal,  is  much  more 
valuable. 

Many  non-resident  landlords  own  vacant  lots  and  some  tene- 
ment-house property,  all  of  which  are  permitted  to  be  in  a  most 
wretched  state  of  neglect,  mainly  because  they  are  holding  the 
property  until  it  can  be  sold  to  advantage.  In  this  district 
44  factories,  116  stores,  and  731  other  places  of  business  were 
found.  Many  of  these  were  cigar  and  tailor  shops.  Some  were 
saloons,  but  the  mass  were  the  small  shops  of  Jewish  and  Italian 
grocers,  etc. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  stores,  factories, 
and  shops  in  the  three  districts  investigated.  The  majority  of 
all  businesses,  as  should  be  expected,  is  in  District  i.  There  were 
33  tailor  and  cigar  shops  which  are  also  used  as  living  apart- 
ments. In  several  places  it  was  found  that  apartments  were 
partitioned  off  in  the  rear  of  saloons,  groceries,  and  other  stores. 
Most  of  the  provision  stores  and  clothing  establishments  of  one 
kind  and  another  were  found  on  Twelfth  Street,  on  Jefferson, 
and  on  Halsted. 

STORES,    FACTORIES,    AND    SHOPS 


District. 

Exclusively  Used  as 

Tailor  and  Cigar  Shops 

All  Other 
Shops. 

Stores. 

Factories. 

Lived  in. 

Not  Lived  in. 

District  i 

116 

12 

7 

44 

5 

21 

33 
4 
7 

93 
26 

43 

605 

131 
174 

District  2 

District  3 

Total 

135 

70 

44 

162 

QIO 

District  2,  or  the  Polish  district,  lies  in  the  Sixteenth  Ward. 
The  workers  are  nearly  all  unskilled,  but  are  thrifty  and  indus- 
trious. The  business  interests  of  the  district  are  small,  and  it 
will  be  seen  in  the  foregoing  table  that  very  few  businesses  were 
found  in  the  districts  investigated.  There  are,  however,  a  few 


APPENDIX  187 

stores  bordering  on  Milwaukee  Avenue  and  quite  a  number  of 
tailorshops.  The  houses  are  nearly  all  owned  by  the  Polish 
people,  and  the  owners  in  most  cases  live  in  their  own  tenement- 
houses.  There  were  very  few  pieces  of  property  for  sale,  and 
only  24  "for  sale"  cards  were  found.  The  Polish  people  are 
content,  of  course,  to  hold  this  property  as  long  as  residents  of 
their  nationality  predominate.  The  majority  of  tenants,  as  will 
be  seen  in  the  foregoing  table,  pay  for  their  apartments  between 
$4  and  $8  per  month.  The  average  rent  per  apartment  is  $5.66; 
the  average  rent  per  room,  $1.40.  It  is  significant  to  note  that 
while  the  average  rent  per  apartment  is  larger  in  this  district 
than  in  the  Italian  district,  the  average  rent  per  room  is  less, 
showing,  of  course,  that  the  Poles  receive,  after  all,  more  for  their 
money. 

District  3,  or  the  Bohemian  district,  lies  near  Eighteenth 
Street  and  Blue  Island  Avenue.  There  are  a  large  number  of 
tailoring  shops  and  other  factories  in  the  district.  The  few 
stores  enumerated  are  on  Blue  Island  Avenue.  This  district  is 
rather  more  prosperous  than  the  other  two.  But  many  Bohe- 
mians live  in  very  poor  homes.  The  rents  for  this  district  are  very 
nearly  the  same  as  those  in  the  Polish  district.  The  majority  of 
residents  pay  between  $4  and  $8  per  month  for  rent.  The  aver- 
age rental  per  apartment  is  $5.93,  and  per  room  $1.64. 

The  housing  conditions  in  Districts  2  and  3  are  in  many  ways 
quite  different  from  those  in  District  i.  The  houses  are  larger. 
They  are  built  of  brick  and  frequently  cover  a  very  large  per- 
centage of  the  lot.  It  is  not  uncommon  in  either  district  to  see 
a  two  and  three  story  brick  tenement  covering  the  entire  depth 
of  the  lot.  In  a  block  without  an  alley  in  the  Bohemian  dis- 
trict there  are  occasionally  three-story  tenements  running  solidly 
through  from  street  to  street.  Over  half  of  the  front  houses  in 
these  districts  are  of  3  stories  in  height  and  63. 7  per  cent  are  of 
either  3,  4,  or  5  stories  in  height.  The  majority  of  rear  tene- 
ments in  this  district  are  of  two  stories,  although  three-story 
brick  tenements  are  frequent.  More  evidence  of  the  new  housing 
problem  and  of  the  excessive  greed  of  landlords  is  exhibited  in 
the  Bohemian  and  Polish  quarters  than  in  District  i.  But  there 
are  no  tenements  in  either  Districts  2  or  3  which  will  equal  in 
size  or  viciousness  several  large  double-deckers  in  District  i. 


1 88 


APPENDIX 


The  mass  of  tenements  in  both  the  Bohemian  and  Polish  districts 
are  more  often  reprehensible. 

The  statement  in  regard  to  conditions  in  these  districts  would 
not  be  complete  without  some  facts  regarding  saloons.  The 
following  table  will  show  the  statistics  on  this  subject: 


RATIO  OF  SALOONS  TO  POPULATION 


No.  of 
Sa- 
loons. 

No.  of 
Individ- 
uals. 

Ratio. 

No.  of 
Fami- 
lies. 

Ratio. 

Italian  District  north  of  Twelfth  Street, 
Blocks  I  to  24  

c6 

Id.  ^60 

2C6.4. 

3,108 

ee  c 

Jewish  District  south  of  Twelfth  Street, 
Blocks  25  to  44     

24. 

10.4.^2 

A^.? 

2,o6o 

858 

Polish  District,  Blocks  45  to  54 

46 

11.821; 

-3QO  i\ 

2,716 

CQ 

Bohemian  District,  Blocks  55  to  63,  in- 
clusive           

•3Q 

7,006 

2H.IJ 

I.C4.4. 

ei.4. 

Totals  

156 

4^.64^ 

2Q1.2 

0,4.28 

6o.4 

This  table  shows  the  number  of  saloons  in  proportion  to  the 
population.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  largest  number  of  saloons  in 
proportion  to  the  population  is  in  the  Bohemian  district.  There 
is,  however,  very  little  difference  between  the  ratio  in  the  Italian 
district  and  that  in  the  Bohemian.  The  lowest  ratio,  as  expected, 
is  in  the  Jewish  district.  The  saloons,  however,  in  these  districts 
are  not  out  of  proportion.  In  Chicago  as  a  whole  the  ratio  of 
saloons  to  population  is  one  saloon  for  every  two  hundred  and 
sixty-two  persons.  Therefore,  the  averages  here  are  about  the 
same  as  those  existing  in  the  city  at  large.  The  following  small 
towns  with  a  population  about  the  same  as  that  of  this  district 
have  many  more  saloons,  for  instance  Yonkers,  New  York,  has 
222  saloons;  Waterbury,  Connecticut,  193;  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana, 
160;  Youngstown,  Ohio,  179;  Covington,  Kentucky,  201,  and 
Galveston,  Texas,  which  has  a  population  of  8,000  less  persons 
than  are  found  in  these  districts,  has  317  saloons. 

In  the  investigation  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  in  1894 
into  the  number  of  saloons  per  person  in  Chicago  as  a  whole,  it 
was  found  that  there  was  one  saloon  to  every  212  persons.  While  in 
the  investigation  of  the  slum  district  of  the  First  Ward,  there  was 


APPENDIX  189 

one  saloon  to  every  127  persons.  This  shows  quite  clearly  that  the 
conditions  in  these  districts  are  fairly  good  compared  with  those 
elsewhere.  It  is  safe  to  conclude,  what  is  after  all  an  old  obser- 
vation, that  the  people  in  these  districts  are  for  the  most  part 
sober  and  law-abiding  citizens. 


Ill 

STATISTICS    ON   THE    CONSTRUCTION   AND   THE   SIZE 
OF    HOUSES 

MATERIAL   OF   HOUSES 

The  following  table  shows  that  half  of  all  houses  investigated 
were  frame  houses.  The  percentage  runs  much  higher  than  this 
when  only  the  rear  tenements  are  considered.  In  District  2  the 
percentage  is  much  smaller.  This  is  of  course  what  should  be 
expected  from  the  studies  made  in  the  main  body  of  the  report. 
The  old  frame  cottages  and  two-story  frame  houses  have  been 
moved  to  the  rear  of  the  lot.  This  is  especially  true  in  District 
i,  which  is  the  oldest  of  the  three  districts  investigated.  The 
Polish  and  Bohemian  districts  have,  as  will  be  seen,  a  large  num- 
ber and  percentage  of  brick  houses.  But  that  there  is  a  growing 
number  of  brick  tenements  in  District  i  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
at  present  one-third  of  all  the  front  houses  are  of  brick.  There 
are  not  many  houses  of  combined  brick  and  frame.  The  photo- 
graph on  page  35  will  show  a  common  type  of  this  kind  of  house. 
Very  often  a  frame  cottage  will  be  raised  upon  a  basement  story 
of  brick.  The  reconstruction  makes  a  tenement-house  of  either 
two  or  four  apartments.  In  District  i,  where  this  type  of  house 
is  most  common,  we  see  that  one  in  every  nine  houses  is  con- 
structed of  this  material. 


190 


APPENDIX 


MATERIAL    OF    HOUSES    BY    DISTRICTS 


Com- 

Frame. 

Brick. 

bination 
Brickand 

Loca- 
tion. 

Frame. 

Per 
Cent. 

Total. 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

ber. 

Cent. 

ber. 

Cent. 

ber. 

District  i-   j 

Front  -- 
Rear  .: 

8l5 

329 

54.6   I        5O2 
79-9  !         57 

33-7 
H 

175 
26 

II.7 
6.1 

I.4Q2 
412 

District  2-  \ 

Front  -- 
Rear  .. 

'8 

167 

34-9 
70.5 

279 

53 

52.7 
22.3 

65 
17 

12.4 
7.2 

529 

237 

District  3.  j 

Front  -- 
Rear  . 

74 
39 

20.5 
48.1 

266 
28 

73-6 
34-6 

21 

H 

5-9 
17-3 

361 
81 

Total 

i,6og 

5i-7 

1,185 

38 

318 

10.2 

3,112 

The  tables  and  diagrams  following  show  all  of  the  front  and 
rear  dwellings  classified  according  to  the  number  of  stories.  As 
will  be  seen,  the  majority  of  front  houses- in  District  i  are  of  two 
stories.  This  is  also  true  of  the  rear  houses  in  this  district.  A 
considerable  percentage,  however,  of  all  front  houses  are  three 
stories  in  height.  A  small  percentage  of  front  dwellings  are  four 
and  five  stories  in  height.  In  District  2  the  conditions  are  some- 
what different.  There  are  more  three-story  houses  and  more  four 
and  five  story  tenements.  In  District  3  the  conditions  are  con- 
siderably different  from  those  in  the  other  two  districts.  Over 
half  of  all  the  front  houses  are  of  three  stories  and  one  house  in 
every  ten  is  of  four  stories  in  height.  What  is  true  of  this  district 
is  also  true  of  all  the  others,  namely,  that  the  largest  number  of 
rear  tenements  are  of  two  stories  in  height.  The  tables  show 
that  half  of  all  dwellings  are  of  two  stories.  It  also  shows 
that  there  are  almost  as  many  houses  of  three,  four,  and  five 
stories  as  there  are  of  one  story. 


I 


APPENDIX 


191 


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North  of  Twelfth  Street- 
District  i  
South  of  Twelfth  Street  

District  2  j 
Districts  —  j 

TJ 

192 


APPENDIX 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    DWELLINGS    ACCORDING    TO     STORIES 
DISTINGUISHING   FRONT   AND    REAR    HOUSES 

DISTRICT    I,   NORTH   OF   TWELFTH   STREET 


Front.  3 


Rear. 


DISTRICT    I.   SOUTH  OF   TWELFTH   STREET 


54-1* 


35-6^ 


DISTRICT  2 


34-9^ 


Rear. 


42.5* 


Front. 


APPENDIX 

DISTRICT  3 

51.5$  Rear. 


'93 


Total  front  and  rear.     3 

2 


52.1* 


The  following  table  shows  that  in  District  i  about  one-third  of 
all  rear  houses  are  one  story  and  are  built  of  frame.  Only  about 
one  in  ten  of  the  front  houses  are  one-story  frame  buildings. 
We  see  that  one-story  frame  dwellings  are  about  14.95  Per  cent 
of  all  dwellings.  This  is  a  larger  percentage  than  exists  in  either 
of  the  other  two  districts.  In  all  three  districts,  one-story  frame 
dwellings  are  most  common  as  rear  houses.  There  are,  however, 
only  11.64  Per  cent  of  one-story  frame  dwellings  in  the  districts. 
The  smallest  percentage,  the  table  shows,  is  in  the  Bohemian 
district.  It  is  quite  common,  as  will  have  been  noticed  in  the 
photographs,  to  find  these  little  one-story  cottages  sprinkled 
throughout  Districts  2  and  3.  It  would,  however,  be  wrong  to 
assume  that  these  little  cottages  are  at  present  the  dwelling-houses 
of  single  families.  Many  times  they  have  been  partitioned  off 
and  two  families,  one  in  the  front  and  one  in  the  rear,  occupy  the 
little  cottage.  Too  frequently  it  happens  that  three  families 
have  been  crowded  into  the  area  which  was  frequently  used  by 
one  family. 


i94 


APPENDIX 


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APPENDIX 

IV 


'95 


STATISTICS  OF  POPULATION,   OCCUPATION  BY  NATIONAL- 
ITIES,   ETC. 

STATISTICS  OF  POPULATION 


Block  No. 

Adults. 

Children. 

Total. 

Families. 

I 

Sl6 

442 

Qc8 

212 

2 

-3QO 

2^8 

^38 

1  12 

•3 

170 

171 

•314 

77 

4 

IQO 

I4C, 

3Qi: 

72 

5 

408 

380 

884 

2O2 

6 

764 

•^o^ 

665 

148 

7 

•3Q1 

248 

CC2 

1  14 

8  

j^4 

163 

183 

->->t 
346 

7S 

*  "J 
611 

^2^ 

1,134 

232 

10 

182 

iw 

337 

71 

ii 

2O7 

s 

16^ 

372 

88 

12     

1  80 

1  68 

348 

72 

IT 

SO7 

44  $ 

oC2 

loo 

14 

228 

160 

388 

08 

1C 

373 

•^06 

670 

I  70 

16 

172 

I4o 

321 

64 

iy 

828 

'fV 
67^ 

I  SOI 

-3-37 

18 

274 

223 

4Q7 

116 

IQ 

244 

232 

476 

1  13 

2O          -    - 

IQI 

237 

428 

QO 

21 

428 

2QQ 

727 

ISS 

22 

aOC 

28; 

rQQ 

I3O 

23 

214 

2Q^ 

c;o7 

OQ 

24 

218 

26s 

483 

QT. 

2C 

1  86 

IIQ 

2QO 

68 

26":::"" 

284 

266 

SSO 

in 

27 

i  IQ 

141 

33 
260 

S4 

28 

ISO 

216 

37S 

60 

2O 

121 

IO? 

226 

47 

•3Q 

2O6 

212 

418 

IO3 

O   - 
31 

224 

342 

566 

I  O2 

•32 

1  20 

IQ7 

322 

63 

•3-3 

y 

116 

118 

234 

47 

•3.4. 

41  1 

c;o2 

QI3 

181 

^1 

2^^ 

176 

4OQ 

84 

J5~ 
^6 

^JJ 

61^ 

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I,O72 

200 

•37 

2IQ 

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SS4 

1  06 

38 

mi 

22$ 

•^f 
376 

65 

^o 

2'3,I 

241 

472 

88 

40 

•^ 

342 

607 

136 

41  -- 

386 

C1I 

917 

178 

42 

1  70 

138 

314 

58 

4^ 

447 

3l8 

76s 

161 

44 

2g8 

4I1; 

713 

128 

45    _ 

616 

519 

1,135 

227 

46-.. 

614 

r-QQ 
SOO 

i,  202 

230 

196  APPENDIX 

STATISTICS    OF    POPULATION — CONTINUED 


Block  No. 

Adults. 

Children. 

Total. 

Families. 

ATI 

co2 

680 

1,182 

228 

48    - 

676 

484 

1,160 

2^6 

AQ 

7Q-2 

Ij023 

1,816 

•J72 

co 

078 

1,  7  lO 

2,^27 

4^2 

Ci 

V/" 

760 

8-^2 

»j   / 

1,601 

u,-,* 

^16 

j 

C2 

"U8 

767 

I  "^K 

2^Q 

C-I 

478 

406 

O7Q 

187 

CA 

C4C 

568 

I  11^ 

22O 

ee 

2  1O 

1  20 

^U 

8q 

11" 

coy 

4.74. 

I.  cm 

2IO 

$7 

m8 

424 

042 

2O4 

58 

31U 

2O7 

I7O 

446 

IOI 

Co 

coo 

SlQ 

I.IOO 

2^^ 

?V 
60 

C7Q 

•^84 

^i'^y 
QO^ 

2IQ 

61 

82 

^8 

I2O 

26 

62 

J.-5Q 

Vtt 

781 

61.. 

CQ2 

66^ 

/"J 

I.20I 

28d 

TOTALS 


Population. 

Families. 

District  I  north  of  Twelfth  Street,  Blocks  i  to  24. 
District  I  south  of  Twelfth  Street 

14,360 
IO.4^2 

3,108 
2,o6o 

District  i,  total 

24  812 

5  168 

District  2_                   ._. 

n,  821- 

2,716 

District  3 

7  006 

I  ^44 

Total  oi  LI           'istricts 

AC.  f)AT, 

o  428 

OCCUPATIONS     BY     NATIONALITIES 


Occupations. 

Italian. 

Jewish. 

Bohe- 
mian. 

Polish. 

All 
Others. 

Unskilled: 
Laborers- 

I30 

3 

6 

42 

27 

4 

Paper-sellers  

Scrub-woman      __  - 

I 
I 

2 
I 

Express  and  teaming 

2 

2O 
I 

3 

I 

Janitors             -     1         ..__ 

i 

Peddlers--     

Fruit-venders 

Bootblacks  -       

2 

Iceman 

I 
2 

Rag-pickers 

I 

Totals    . 

117 

12 

AC 

28 

o 

APPENDIX 


197 


OCCUPATIONS    BY   NATIONALITIES — CONTINUED 


Occupations. 

Italian. 

Jewish. 

Bohe- 
mian. 

Polish. 

All 
Others. 

Skilled: 
Cook    - 

Waiter 

j 

Bakers 

0 

I 

Machinists 

Q 

2 

A 

Blacksmiths 

Tinsmith 

I 

Printers 

I 

2 

Bookbinders  -  - 

2 

Masons  

I 

2 

Carpenters 

I 

8 

\ 

2 

Shoemakers 

I 

7 

2 

Tailors 

T 

27 

21 

Barbers 

A 

2 

4 

Butchers 

2 

I 

Jeweler  - 

I 

Cigarmakers  - 

A 

2 

Firemen  _ 

j 

j 

Sailor              -             _ 

I 

Coopers 

I 

j 

\Veaver 

I 

Electricians 

^ 

Whitewasher 

I 

Upholsterer  - 

I 

Painters 

I 

I 

Plumbers 

2 

Conductor  - 

I 

Totals,  skilled              

16 

=;6 

60 

18 

16 

Commercial: 
Storekeepers 

C 

17 

-3 

j 

2 

Saloonkeepers  -     

2 

•J 

Bartender 

I 

Clerks 

A 

2 

Horse-dealer  - 

I 

Junk-dealers 

I 

I 

Totals 

7 

24 

8 

i 

•j 

Special: 
Rabbi 

I 

Teachers 

6 

Owners,  retired- 

I 

I 

2 

i 

2 

Midwife  - 

I 

Totals,  soecial     . 

I 

8 

2 

i 

•} 

198 


APPENDIX 
SUMMARY 


Italian. 

Jewish. 

Bohe- 
mian. 

Polish. 

All 
Others. 

Unskilled 

IV7 

T/2 

A.S 

28 

Skilled                                                       

J£ 

16 

r6 

£ 

18 

16 

Commercial  and  special 

8 

32 

IO 

2 

6 

Per  cent  unskilled 

85 

26  7 

-in  I 

;8i 

2o 

Per  cent  skilled 

10 

466 

C2  2 

V7  1; 

C  T   C 

Per  cent  commercial  and  special  - 

e 

26  7 

87 

d  2 

TO  A 

Totals 

IOO 

IOO 

IOO 

IOO 

IOO 

OCCUPATIONS   AND    NATIONALITIES 

PROPORTION    OF  CERTAIN    NATIONALITIES    IN    THE   THREE    MAIN    GROUPS 
OF    OCCUPATIONS   AS    FOUND   IN   475    CASES   IN   DISTRICT    I 


Italians. 


Jews. 


26.7$ 


46.6$ 


39-1* 


Bohemians. 


58.3^ 


37-5^ 


Poles. 


All  others. 


194$ 


Unskilled. 


Skilled. 


Commercial  and  Special. 


APPENDIX  199 

It  will  be  seen  in  the  above  tables  and  diagrams  that  the  mass 
of  Italians  are  unskilled.  Their  occupations  are  usually  street 
work  or  various  other  kinds  of  shoveling  or  heavy  lifting.  They 
have  usually  come  from  the  rural  districts  of  Southern  Italy,  and 
when  they  arrive  in  this  country  they  are  handicapped  by  their 
inability  to  speak  the  language  and  by  their  lack  of  general  edu- 
cation. They  come  quickly  under  the  leadership  of  one  of  their 
own  nationality  who  is  generally  able  to  obtain  for  them  work 
from  the  railroads  or  the  city. 

The  Jews  are  peddlers  and  tailors.  Quite  a  number  are 
store-keepers,  but  a  few  do  unskilled  work.  A  great  number 
of  Bohemians  are  tailors  and  skilled  in  other  trades.  The  Poles, 
like  the  Italians,  are  most  often  common  laborers.  The  largest 
number  of  Bohemians  are  skilled  and  the  largest  number  of  Jews 
are  store-keepers.  The  Poles  and  Bohemians  are  usually  more 
thrifty  and  hard-working  than  the  Italians,  and  Jews  have 
these  qualities  more  pronounced  than  either  of  the  former. 


V 

MISCELLANEOUS 
THE   IMPORTANCE   OF    DRY    SOIL 

The  sanitary  importance  of  dry  soil  is  not  generally  realized. 
Land  which  has  been  made  or  built  up  in  a  swamp  is  apt  to  be 
dangerous  to  health,  unless  by  some  artificial  method  it  is  pre- 
pared to  drain  off  water  and  the  various  other  fluid  accumula- 
tions. Where  the  population  is  exceedingly  dense  and  where  the 
waste  slops  of  the  population  and  the  contents  of  the  privy  vaults 
are  not  properly  cared  for,  the  results  are  perhaps  more  danger- 
ous to  health  than  those  of  any  other  outside  insanitary  condition. 
Dampness,  as  has  been  shown  elsewhere,  is  the  cause  of  many 
forms  of  sickness.  Lung  diseases  and  rheumatism  are  particu- 
larly associated  with  dampness  of  the  soil.  A  very  large  number 
of  houses  in  all  three  of  the  districts  have  been  built  upon  low 
land  and  made  soil.  In  order  that  such  a  house  may  be  sanitary 
it  is  very  necessary  that  the  whole  area  on  which  the  house  is 
built  should  be  covered  with  a  thick  layer  of  some  kind  of  con- 
crete or  cement.  Damp  courses  also  should  be  made  to  run 


200  APPENDIX 

about  the  walks.  These  may  be  of  asphalt  or  slate  imbedded  in 
concrete.  Very  few  houses  in  the  districts  investigated  have 
been  built  with  any  provisions  for  preventing  insanitary  evils 
resulting  from  the  wet  soil.  In  the  three  districts  investigated 
there  were  1,017  lots  which  were  from  two  to  six  feet  below  the 
level  of  the  sidewalk  adjoining;  1,654  lots  were  at  least  two  feet 
below  the  level  of  the  street  adjoining.  Only  603  lots  in  the 
three  districts  were  above  or  on  a  level  with  the  street.  This 
shows  a  most  extensive  prevalence  of  bad  conditions  resulting 
from  a  low  land.  Mr.  Charles  F.  Wingate,  a  specialist  on  the 
sanitary  construction  of  houses,  says  in  an  article  on  that  subject 
published  in  the  Municipal  Affairs:  "One  of  the  most  potent 
things  which  affect  health  is  dampness.  Manhattan  Island  is 
largely  covered  with  rock,  whose  fissures  collect  and  retain  moist- 
ure. Much  of  the  water  front  is  filled  in  soil,  and  there  are 
large  sections  of  made  land.  Many  natural  water-courses  have 
never  been  properly  drained,  and  saturate  the  soil  with  moisture. 
To  these  combined  influences  we  may  ascribe  much  of  the  mor- 
tality from  consumption  and  kindred  diseases,  which  will  certainly 
continue  until  the  subsoil  is  drained  and  made  dry,  or  the  law 
now  on  the  statute  books  which  requires  all  tenement  cellars  to 
have  an  impervious  flooring  is  strictly  enforced.  I  consider  the 
influence  of  soil  dampness  far  more  potent  and  insidious  than 
the  influence  of  bad  plumbing,  and  therefore  regard  these  forms 
as  of  vital  importance." 

Many  outside  insanitary  conditions  will  appear,  in  the  light 
of  the  foregoing,  to  be  of  more  importance  than  they  would 
otherwise  be  considered;  738  lots  covered  in  this  investigation 
in  District  i  were  not  drained  to  the  sewer;  781  cellars  had  no 
kind  of  drainage.  These  conditions,  of  course,  accentuate 
the  evils  of  the  soil  saturated  with  moisture.  In  parts  of  the 
districts  investigated  it  was  also  true  that  the  land  was  so  low  the 
sewer  pipes  were  unable  to  be  laid  so  that  there  was  a  sufficient 
fall  and  flow.  In  consequence,  during  certain  seasons  of  the  year 
the  sewage  backed  up  in  the  pipes  and  endangered  the  lives  of 
the  many  thousand  people  living  in  these  portions  of  the  city.  In 
fact,  all  drainage  and  sewer  pipes  are  made  more  dangerous  by 
the  conditions  which  prevail  in  a  district  where  the  soil  is  wet 
and  low. 


APPENDIX  201 


FIRE    ESCAPES 

Almost  no  attention  has  been  given  in  this  report  to  the  ex- 
ceedingly important  question  of  fire  escapes  and  fire  construction. 
There  were  almost  no  fire  escapes  reported,  and  there  are  many 
violations  existing  in  all  three  of  the  districts  of  the  laws  on  that 
subject.  The  law  in  Chicago  requires  that  all  tenements  over 
three  stories  in  height  are  to  have  fire  escapes  and  standpipes. 
But  only  eight  fire  escapes  were  reported  by  the  enumerators. 
Our  laws  on  fire  construction  are  exceedingly  defective.  It 
depends  largely  upon  the  Building  Department  whether  or  not 
there  is  any  construction  in  tenement-houses  which  will  prevent 
dangerous  fires.  By  law  the  partitions  between  apartments  are 
to  be  made  entirely  of  incombustible  material.  In  tenements  less 
than  five  stories  high  the  light  shafts  may  be  made  of  combustible 
material.  In  other  cases  the  light  shafts  are  to  be  made  from 
incombustible  material.  Our  laws  are  decidedly  inadequate  as 
compared  to  those  of  New  York  and  other  cities.  The  writer 
recently  in  looking  at  a  tenement  housing  a  very  large  number 
of  people  saw  that  the  fire  escapes  were  covered  with  boxes  and 
barrels,  and  if  a  fire  had  occurred,  the  fire  escapes  would  have 
been  useless.  There  is  no  law  to  prevent  incumbrances  such  as 
those  spoken  of.  Enormous  improvements  can  and  should  be 
made  in  our  laws  and  in  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  which  we 
already  have. 

There  are  hundreds  of  tenements  in  Chicago  which  are  veri- 
table fire-traps.  Tenements  housing  five  or  six  families  and  built 
solely  of  frame  are  frequently  found  in  District  i.  The  writer 
has  one  in  mind  in  which  the  most  dangerous  conditions  prevail. 
There  is  a  bakery  in  the  basement  where  doughnuts  are  boiled 
in  fat.  By  the  merest  slip  the  fat  may  drop  into  the  fire  and  the 
whole  tenement  go  up  in  a  furious  conflagration.  Thousands  of 
lives  are  endangered  night  and  day  by  reason  of  the  extremely 
faulty  construction  and  the  methods  of  escape  which  are  now 
provided.  Many  terrible  fires  in  tenement-houses  have  already 
occurred,  and  it  is  only  a  matter  of  time  until  some  horrible  and 
cruel  disaster  will  awaken  Chicago  to  the  need  of  radical  reform 
in  this  line. 


202  APPENDIX 


THE    SCHEDULES 

The  data  gathered  by  the  investigation  was  systematized  and 
returned  on  the  following  schedules: 

The  purpose  of  Lot  Card  "B"  was  to  obtain  all  facts  regard- 
ing certain  inside  and  outside  sanitary  conditions  in  and  about 
all  dwellings.  Questions  regarding  the  condition  of  the  side- 
walks, garbage  boxes,  and  stables  were  gathered  upon  this 
schedule.  Facts  regarding  the  material  and  condition  of  each 
dwelling  were  placed  in  the  section  which  have  portions  allotted 
for  the  front,  middle,  and  rear  house.  On  the  back  of  this  same 
schedule  is  a  plumbing  card.  Information  was  gathered  con- 
cerning the  sanitary  condition  of  all  plumbing  in  all  dwellings. 

Apartment  Card  "C"  was  used  in  investigating  certain  apart- 
ments thought  to  have  bad  inside  sanitary  conditions.  By  this 
means  it  was  determined  whether  or  not  the  cellar  or  base- 
ment had  good  floor  material,  was  water-tight,  and  whether 
or  not  it  was  damp  on  dry  days.  In  regard  to  the  cellar  and  the 
other  apartments,  the  amount  of  cubic  air-space  per  person  was 
determined,  the  openings  upon  which  windows  faced  and  the  con- 
ditions of  light  and  overcrowding. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

HOUSING    STUDIES    REFERRED  TO  IN   THIS    REPORT. 

Baths,  Report  of  Mayor's  Special  Committee  on.     (New  York.) 

Bowmaker,  Edward,  "  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes." 

Bulletin,  Federal  Bureau  of  Labor,  September,  1900. 

"Charities,"  Weekly  of  New  York  Charity  Organization  Society. 

Charter,  Greater  New  York. 

Christian  Social  Union  Leaflet  II.     (London.) 

Department  of  Health,  Chicago,  Pamphlet  on  Laws. 

Department  of  Health,  Chicago,  Report,  1897-1898. 

Department  of  Health,  Chicago,  Bulletin,  December,  1900. 

Department  of  Public  Works,  Chicago,  Report,  1898. 

Estabrook,  Harold  Kelsey,  "  Some  Slums  in  Boston." 

Farr,  William,  "Vital  Statistics." 

Gould,  E.  R.  L.,  "  Housing  of  Working  Classes,"  Report  of  National  Bureau 

of  Labor. 

Haw,  George,  "  No  Room  to  Live." 
Hill,  Octavia,  "  Homes  of  the  London  Poor." 
Hill,  Octavia,  "Work  Among  the  Poor." 
Housing  of  the  Working  Classes,  Report  of  House  of  Lords  Committee  on, 

1884. 
Hunter,  Robert,  "Chicago's  Housing  Problem."     Report  of  the  Improved 

Housing  Association.     (Not  published.) 
Journal  of  American  Social  Science  Association,  1000. 
Kerr,  Dr.  Norman,  "  Inebriety." 
Knopf,  Dr.  S.  A.,  "Tuberculosis  in  the  Tenements." 
Lincoln,  Alice  N.,"  Concerning  the  Management  of  Tenement  Houses." 
Maltbie,  Roy,  Monograph  on  Municipal  Functions,  "Municipal  Affairs." 
Mann,  John  (Glasgow),"  Better  Houses  for  the  Poor;  Will  They  Pay?" 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor,  Reports  for  1892  and  1893. 
Metropolitan  Public  Gardens  Association,  London  Reports. 
Newsholme,  Arthur,  "Vital  Statistics." 
New  York  Tenement  House  Commission,  Report  of,  1894. 
New  York  Tenement  House  Commission,  Report  of,  1900. 
Paine,  Robert  Treat,  "  Causes  of  Poverty." 

Prospectus  of  City  and  Suburban  Homes  Association.     (New  York.) 
Revised  Statutes  of  Illinois,  1899. 
Reynolds,  "  Housing  of  the  Poor." 
Riis,  Jacob,  "  Ten  Years'  War." 
Riis,  Jacob,  "  How  the  Other  Half  Lives." 

203 


204  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Shaw,  Albert,  "  Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain." 

The  Cottage  Question:     Reports  from  the  Land  Law  Reform  Association, 

London. 

The  Slums  of  Great  Cities.     Report  of  National  Bureau  of  Labor. 
Thompson,  W.,  Alderman,  "  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes."  (Richmond, 

Surrey.) 

Veiller,  Lawrence,  "Tenement  House  Reform  in  New  York,  1834-1900." 
Veiller,  Lawrence,  "  Housing  Conditions  and  Tenement  Laws." 
Veiller,  Lawrence,  "Tenement  House  Legislation  in  New  York,  1852-1900." 
Warner,  A.  G.,  "American  Charities." 

Wines,  Dr.  Frederick  H.,  "  Punishment  and  Reformation." 
Wingate,  Chas.  F.,  "  Sanitary  Construction  of  Houses,"  "  Municipal  Affairs." 
Worthington,  T.  Locke,  "  Dwellings  of  the  People." 


INDEX 


Air,  need  of  fresh,  73. 

Air  shaft,  law  regarding,  201. 

Alleys,  badly  paved,  117. 

statistics  of  unclean,  117. 
Asphalt,    pavements,    extension   of, 

recommended,  116. 
Average    number    of     persons    per 

apartment,  65. 
per  room,  64. 

Badly  lighted  rooms,  number  of,  78. 
Basements,  conditions  of,  88,  89. 

fitted  for  habitation,  92. 
Baths,  difficulty  of  obtaining,  109. 

public,  108. 
Board  of  Health,  80,  99. 

State,  83. 

Bohemian  district,  14,  42,  149,  187. 
Bohemians,  199. 
Boston,  32. 

baths,  173. 
Boxes,  garbage,  condition  of,  136. 

location  of,  136, 

refusal  to  furnish,   137,  138. 

statistics  in  regard  to,  134. 

overflowing,  138,  139. 
Brookline  baths,  173. 
Bureau  of  Charities,  161. 
Bureau  of  Labor,  National,  166. 

Catch  basin,  definition  of,  103. 
Cellars,  88. 

defined  by  city  ordinance,  91. 
Chicago  river,  south  branch  of,  182. 
Chicagc  "  slum,"  178. 
Chickens,  141,  142. 
Children,  125,  126. 
City  Attorney,  120,  122. 
City  and  Suburban  Homes  Associa- 
sociation,  175. 

efforts  of,  176. 

Classification  of  air  space,  per  per- 
son, 86,  87. 

Cleanliness  of  buildings,  73. 
Closets,  hopper,  106. 

pan,  106. 

sidewalk,  106. 

tank,  106. 

water,  105. 
Collins,  Miss,  177. 


Commission  des  Logements  Insaln- 

bres,  163. 

Commissioner  of   Labor,   investiga- 
tion of,  188. 
Comparative  density  of  population, 

54,  55- 

Cons,  Miss  Victoria,  176. 
Construction  and  size  of  houses  rela- 
tive to  districts,  189. 
Courts,  filthy,  126. 

report  of,  126. 
Cramped  living  quarters,  66. 

commented  upon,  67. 
Crime,  cause  of,  149. 
Crothers,  Dr.  T.  D.,  148. 

Data,  manner  of  gathering,  202. 
Dampness,  results  of,  199. 
Death  rate,  154. 

impossibility  to  ascertain,  relative 
to  housing  conditions,  156. 

in  proportion  to  Boston,  158. 

why  materially  reduced,  159. 
Death  rates  by  wards,  156,  157. 
Defective  sidewalks,  in. 
Degeneration,  individual,  144. 

moral,  147. 

social,  144. 
Degeneration  of  two-story  frame  and 

brick  houses,  22. 
Devine,  Edward  1'.,  145. 
District,  Bohemian,   14,  42,  149,  187. 

Italian,  13,  92,  94,  149,  183,  185. 

Jewish,   12,  26,  32,   59,92,94,   119, 
149,  158,  185. 

Polish,  14,26,41,54,59,64,108,  149, 

181,  186,  187. 

Districts  in  the  center  of  Chicago,  72. 
Double-decker,  defined,  43-46. 

examples  of,  46. 

result  of,  if  permitted  to  grow,  49. 
Drainage,  bad,  200. 
Drained  lots,  102. 
Dry  soil,  importance  of,  199. 
Ducks,  141,  142. 
Dwellings  of  the  working  class,  22. 

Edinburgh,  improvement  of,  19. 
Evils,   prevention  of,   in  New  York 
and  Boston,  23. 


205 


2O6 


INDEX 


Exhaustion,  153. 
Examination  of  plumbing,  100. 
Examples  of  bad  sanitation  in  base- 
ment dwellings,  90,  91. 
Expropriation  Act,  New  York,  165. 
Boston,  165. 

Farr,  William,  160. 

Fetter,  Dr.  Frank,  58,  98. 

Finance   committee  of  city  council, 

report  of,  119,  120. 
Fire  escapes,  law  regarding,  201. 

incumbrances  on,  201. 
Fluegge,  Professor,  174. 
Frame  houses,  neglect  of  repair,  94. 
Front  and  rear  tenement  houses,  30, 

37,  75- 

Garbage  boxes,  31,  130. 
statistics  in  regard  to,  134. 
location  of,  136,  137. 

Garbage,  133. 

systematic  disposal  of,  134. 

Gerhard,  William  P.,  174. 

Glasgow,  demolition  of  slum  quar- 
ters, 19. 

Gould,  Dr.  E.  R.  L.,  154,  175,  176. 

Gymnasiums,  open  air,  170. 
indoor,  170. 

Harris,  Dr.  Elisha,  149. 

Haw,  Mr.  George,  70. 

Health  Department,  154,  155,  162. 

"discretion  of,"  162,  164. 
"Hell's  Half  Acre,"  183. 
Hill,  Miss  Octavia,  176. 
Housing  associations,  work  of,  175, 

176. 
Housing  committee,  whom  it  should 

consist  of,  164. 
Housing  conditions,  in  Liverpool,  16. 

comparison  of,  by  districts,  187. 
Housing,  examples  of,  12. 

problems,  11. 

Indecent  overcrowding,  influence  of, 

7071. 
results  or,  71. 

Insanitary  conditions,  141,  142,  143. 

Inspectors,  165,  166. 

Intemperance,  147,  148. 

Investigation.by  committee  on  Tene- 
ment Conditions,  14. 

Italian  district,   13,  92,  94,  149,  183, 
185. 

Jewish  district,  12,  26,  32,  59,  92,94, 
119,  149,  158,  185. 


Jews,  199. 

John  Worthy  School,  151. 
Juvenile  criminality,  cause  of,  150. 
results  of,  151. 

Kerr,  Dr.  Norman,  148. 
Knopf,  Dr.  S.  A.,  152. 

Law,  prohibiting  sidewalk  closet,  107. 
Law  regarding  air  shaft,  201. 

air  space,  83. 

cellars,  94. 

depth  of  building,  24. 

fire  escapes,  201 

lodging  nouses,  88. 

of  New  York  and  Boston  pertain- 
ing to  houses,  99. 

partitions  between  apartments,  201 

play  grounds  in   connection  with 
schools,  172. 

plumbing,  106. 

removal  of  manure,  132. 

window  space,  78. 

water  closet,  106. 
Lighting,  need  of,  73. 
Liverpool,  housing  conditions  in,  50. 
Locke,  Worthington,  128. 
London  county  council,  163. 
Lord  Shaftesbury,  71,  153. 
Lot,  overcrowding  by  buildings,  31, 

36. 

percentage  to  be  occupied,  24. 
Low  land,  bad  conditions  resulting 
from,  200. 

Maltbie,  Mr.  Roy,    170. 

Manchester,  Eng.,  160. 

"Mansion  House  Council  on  Dwell- 
ings of  the  Poor  in  London," 
purpose  of  the,  174. 

Manure,  neglect  of  removal  of, ^131. 
law  regarding  removal  of,  132. 
boxes,  129,  130. 

Material  of  houses,  relative  to  dis- 
tricts, 190. 

Method  of  legislation,  relative  to 
building  tenements,  165. 

Metropolitan  Public  Gardens  Asso- 
ciations, the,  170. 

Municipal  authorities,  difficulties 
confronting,  17. 

Municipal  legislation,  need  of,  26. 

Need  of    demolition  of    dangerous 

tenements,  165. 
Need  of   reform   in  laws  relative  to 

construction  of  buildings,  201. 


INDEX 


207 


New  laws  necessary  for  good  types 
of  tenement  construction,  164. 

New  York,  crowded  condition  of,  52. 

New  York  law  regarding,  keeping  of 

animals,  141. 
play   ground   in   connection   with 

school,  172. 
removal  of  manure,  132. 

New  York  tenement  house  commis- 
sion, 43,  51,  114,  164. 

New  York  Tenement  House  Exhi- 
bition, 152,  176. 

North  Side,  conditions  on,  183. 

Open  space,  need  of,  168. 
Ordinance,    London,   concerning 

water  closets,  107. 

Outside  sanitary  condition,  import- 
ance of,  ii  i. 

Overcrowding,  illustration  of,  34. 
method  of,  43,  51. 
results  from,  51,  52. 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  146. 
Pan  closet,  106. 
Parks,  166. 

need  of,  168. 
Pavements,  asphalt,  116. 

block,  114. 

granite,  116. 

kinds  of,  114. 
Pauperism,  146. 

definition  of,  146. 

Percentage   of   families   per  apart- 
ment, 61,  62. 
Playgrounds,  170. 
Plumbing,  definition  of,  100. 

important  part  of,  lop. 

law  regarding,  in  Illinois,  101. 
Poles,  199. 
Polish  district,  14,  26,  41,  54,  59,  64, 

108,  149,  181,  186,  187. 
Povertv,  145. 

Preventative  measures,  lack  of,  re- 
garding housing  problem,  161. 
Privies,  statistics  of,  105. 
Privy  vault,  definition  of,  104. 
Professor  Huxley,  83,  87. 
Public  baths,   establishment  of,  by 
Liverpool,  173. 

in  Boston,  173. 

Rag  and  junk  shop,  142. 

Rear  houses,  88,  94,  96. 

Rear  tenement,  definition  of,  37. 

their  description,  36. 
Report  of  Bureau  of  Labor,  32. 

Dr.  Fetter,  42. 


Royal  Commission,  52. 

New  York  tenement  commission, 

43,  Si- 

Relative  working  qualities  of  the  Bo- 
hemians, Italians,  Jews,  Poles, 
199. 

Rents,  in  Bohemian  quarter,  187. 
in  Italian  quarter,  185. 
in  Jewish  quarter,  185. 
in  Polish  quarter,  187. 
Restrictions  of  crowded  tenants,  49. 
Results     of    investigation    of    City 

Homes  Association.  178. 
Riis,  Jacob  A.,  46,  165. 
Rooms,  badly  lighted,  79. 
badly  ventilated,  75,  77. 

Saloons,  ratio  of,  in  different  dis- 
tricts, 1 88. 

in  proportion  to  other  cities,  188. 
Sanitary  Aid  Society  of  New  York, 

purpose  of,  174. 
Sanitary  reform,  economic  value  of, 

154. 

Sewage,  88. 
Sickness,  152. 
Sidewalk    closet,    law     prohibiting, 

107. 

Sidewalks,  117. 
defective,  119,  120,  122. 
statistics  of,  118. 
wood,  1 18.  , ' 

Social  and  Sanitary  Society  of  Edin- 
burgh, 175. 

South  Chicago,  conditions  in,  181. 
Special  Parks  Commission,  170,  171. 
Stables,   condition   and   description 

of,  130,  131. 
offensive,  128. 
Statistics       regarding      apartments 

relative  to  floor  space,  61,  62. 
area  and  population  of  Chicago, 

58. 

conditions  of  houses,  96,  97,  98. 
defective  lighting,  80. 
height  of  buildings,  190,  193. 
lighting  and  ventilation,  77. 
manure  boxes,   stables,   etc.,   129, 

ISO- 
population,  53,  155,  156. 
rents,  185. 
sinks,  102. 

stores,  factories,  shops,  186. 
streets,  112,  114. 
tenants  in  each  tenement  house, 

59- 

Stock  Yards  District,  condition  of 
buildings  in,  182. 


208 


INDEX 


Streets,  badly  paved,  112,  116,  117. 

statistics  of,  112,  114. 

unclean,  112. 

Supervision  of  new  tenement  house 
buildings,  162. 

Tenement  house,  history  of,  in  Chi- 
cago, 21. 

Tenement  house  reform,  manner  of, 
in  New  York  and  London,  177, 
178. 
suggestion  of,  177. 

"Ten  Years'  War"  in  New  York,  16, 
46. 

'The  Health  and  Housing,"  163. 


Tuberculosis,  152. 

Unclean  streets,  112. 
alleys,  112. 

Vacant  lots,  filthy,  124,  125. 
"  Visiting  Nurses,"  The,  lol. 

Warner,  Amos  G.,  146. 
Water  closet,  92. 

definition  and  kinds  of,  106. 

insanitary,  107. 

lack  of,  108. 
Wines,  Dr.  Frederick  H.,  150. 


